224 Plants Collected iyi Paraguay. 



are also used for feeding cattle. The meal made by grinding them 

 and drying the pulp, called farina, forms the principal subsistence 

 of the common people. A delicious bread known as chipa is manu- 

 factured from it, and it serves as many purposes as wheat flour does 

 in this country. It may be grown most of the year. 



Maiiiliot utilissiina, Polil., 1. c, 32. 



Asuncion (391). 



So strongly resembles the preceding species that an unpractised 

 eye cannot tell them apart. The natives, however, readily distin- 

 guish them by small differences in color and position of the leaves 

 on the stem. In properties they are opposites, for the juice of this 

 species is a deadly poison. It is known as Mandioca brava, and is 

 cultivated to some extent in Paraguay. When the juice is expressed 

 from the grated pulp, and that is dried over the fire or in the sun, 

 it becomes a wholesome article of food. Indeed, some persons 

 expressed to me a preference for the meal made of this species, but 

 I never could discover any difference in taste between the two. 



Grown the year round. 



Bernardia pulcliella, Muell. Arg. in Mart. Fl. Bras., xi, pt. 2, 392. 



Caballero (607). January. = Balansa 1688. 



A tall shrub or small tree. The fruit as in Gaperonia in 3 cocci, 

 but these are only minutely pubescent. The staminate flowers are 

 in slender spikes 3-4 cm. long, usually on a different stem or another 

 part of the stem from the pistillate ; stamens 8-12. Pistillate 

 flowers few or solitary. Leaves elliptical, narrow^ed at both ends, 

 sessile, serrate on the upper half, 6-13 cm. long and 2-4 cm. wide, 

 appressed-pubescent on the nerves beneath. 



Acalyplia cominuiiis, Muell. Arg., Linnsea, xxxiv, 23. 

 Pilcomayo River (1549). February. 



Acalyplia communis, Muell. Arg., var. hirta, Mnell. Arg. in Mart. 

 Fl. Bras., xi, pt. 2, 350. 



Asuncion (189). November. 



Suffruticose, usually not quite a metre in height, but sometimes 

 growing into a shrub 2-2J m. high. A very variable species as to 

 pubescence, shape of leaves, length of petioles, and thickness of the 

 spikes. The form growing in old fields and by the wayside at 



