APPEND.] 



MACAIBA. 



$57 



oblong. Pistil, style thick, without a stigma, barren. 

 Female Flowers. Calyx small, whitish, monophyllus, 

 trifid, irregular, permanent. Corolla tripetalous, 

 rounded, the sides imbricate and united in the middle 

 with the nectary. Nectary, a monophyllous corolla 

 which lines and reunites within the bases of the petals. 

 Stamina, none. Pistil consists of a rounded germen, 

 a very short style and three stigmata, simple. Pericarp, 

 a round drupe, of the size of a large jambo or rose apple, 

 or of a small common apple, yellowish : it consists of 

 a ligneous exterior bark which is weak : of a bony nut, 

 an oily almond, and a layer of oily, yellow pulp. 



The plant is to be found in Pernambuco, and in 

 some other parts of Brazil. 



The oily pulp of the fruit and the almond of the 

 inner stone is eaten, and is sold in the markets. The 

 ventricose or middle part of the stem contains a fecula 

 which is extracted in times of want, and is eaten, being 

 prepared in various manners. The leaf contains a fibre 

 fine and strong, like the leaf of the tucum ,- but like that 

 it is difficult to obtain when dry or suado, and impossible 

 to get it by maceration, for the same happened with 

 this as with the tucum in the experimemts which I 

 made. This is a new species, and owing to the 

 middle of the stem being much thicker than the ex- 

 tremities, I have given to it the specific name of cocos 

 ventricosa. For some time I was in doubt whether I 

 should place it in this genus or not, on account of its 

 monopetalous nectary, which lines and unites the petals 

 of the corolla within. The female as well as the male 

 flowers are fixed in cups hollowed in the spike or 

 common peduncle. The female flowers are solitary, 

 A A 3 



