The Aborigines of Brazil. .'331 



of Indian corn common in Mexico and the neighbouring coun- 

 tries, are unknown in Brazil, and that the love-apple, Solanum 

 Ly coper sicum, L., in Aztek Tomalt, in Zapotek Pethoxe, and the 

 Mexican kinds of Pine-apple, and of Sapola, Achras and Lu- 

 cuma are none of them cultivated; an etymological examination 

 of the cultivated plants growing wild in Brazil, must among 

 other things satisfy us that the names of many of them are sim- 

 ple roots, which are sometimes applied to a single species, and 

 sometimes to several allied ones, but that most of them are 

 compound words. The words Caa leaf, ilva in the Guarani dia- 

 lect, plant, Ibira tree, Spe twining plant, are some of the com- 

 monest, as Caa-apeba broad leaf, Piper Peltatum, Caa-pim the 

 name of grasses, Tajoba, the hot Aracece, from tax to burn in the 

 mouth : Icicar-iiva resin tree, from Icica resin, &c. &c. Many 

 compound words have a generic and specific meaning, as 

 Jetai- Cicar-iiva, tree of the resin Jetai, Hymencea. Many of 

 their simple roots occur also in languages very different from 

 the Tupi, but bear quite other meanings. Thus Mart or Mali, 

 means in Tupi Geoffrcea spinosa, in Carib Cassia Brasiliana. 

 Copa means in Tupi balsamic resin, and Copa ilva Copaiba : 

 Copallia, in Aztek is incense, Copal in Chili sulphur. 



I close these etymological remarks with a few more exam- 

 ples of their compounds. Nandy-yroba bitter oil, Carapa Guja- 

 nensis, because such oil is expressed from its seeds. Gua- 

 vyroba, several species of Mrylus and Eugenea, which have 

 an acrid oil in their leaves or fruit. Pinda-iiva, several kinds of 

 Tylopia, so named because they make fish-line, Pinda, from its 

 inner bark, Japicanga, thorny bushes with round heads, seve- 

 ral kinds of Smilacece. Curuba-y, itch tree, Bowdichea Major, 

 Mart., because the bark of the tree is used against eruptions. 



The peculiarities of this botanical nomenclature of the 



Indian seem to indicate, that the useful properties of these 



plants were gradually recognised while they were in their 



present low state of civilization : and the mixing together 



of more simple with more complex designations is another 



2 x 



