38 THE PIASSABA FIBRE OF COMMERCE, 



to England under the name of " coquillas" or coquilhos. Being exces- 

 sively hard, beautifully mottled with dark and light brown, and capable 

 of taking a very high polish, they are extensively used for turnery-work, 

 especially in making the handles of bell-pulls, the knobs of walking-sticks 

 and umbrellas, egg-cups, humming-tops, small boxes, and similar articles. 

 The number of these exported from Bahia in 1851 and 1852 averaged 4,163 

 mille ; and in 1853, '54, and '55, the annual exports were 2,200 mille. 



Another Attalea, the commercial importance of which has only lately 

 become apparent, is Attalea Cohune of Martius, the northernmost species 

 of the genus. In the year 1854, Chief-Justice Temple, of British Hon- 

 duras, in a communication to the Society of Arts, drew prominent atten- 

 tion to it, as likely to furnish a valuable article of trade. 



"The cohune (written also cahoun) resembles in appearance the cocoa- 

 nut palm ; but it is not nearly so high as that tree, and the trunk is consi- 

 derably thicker. The branches or leaves, instead of growing from the. top, 

 shoot up and radiate from the bottom. The order and regularity in which 

 it grows is surprising. I have seen rows of it presenting the appearance 

 of having been planted with the greatest care — long avenues which closely 

 resembled the nave and aisles of a cathedral, the arched leaves meeting 

 overhead, and producing an exact imitation of the vaidted roofs ; and if 

 the sun was declining, the horizontal rays, shining at intervals through one 

 side of the avenue, created the splendid effulgence of the most richly-painted 

 window. The tree bears nuts about the size of an egg, which grow in 

 large bunches, and, from their size, form, and weight, remind one of those 

 Dutch tiles on which were represented the Hebrew spies bending under 

 the ponderous clusters of the Promised land. The kernel tastes somewhat 

 like that of the cocoa-nut, but is far more oleaginous, and the oil extracted 

 from it is infinitely superior. No other oil except that of the cohune and 

 the cocoa-nut is burnt in this country ; but a pint of the former will last 

 double the time that the same quantity of the latter will. The cohune oil 

 congeals at a temperature of 72° ; the cocoa-nut, at 68°. There is no 

 question whatever that if it were known to the public in general, it would 

 completely surpersede the use of the cocoa-nut oil. 



" Honduras consists principally of two kinds of land : the one is 

 called a ' pine ridge ;' the other, a ' cohune ridge.' The former is, generally 

 speaking, sterile and sandy, and but here and there interspersed with 

 patches of greater fertility, ' green spots ' in the midst of a sandy wilder- 

 ness, the resort of immense herds of deer and antelopes, the flesh 

 of which bears not the least resemblance to the succulent, well-fed venison 

 of England, but is dry, white, stringy, and an utter stranger to fat. 

 This ridge — densely covered with pines, which are much more numerous 

 than the red pines of North America — might yield any quantity of pitch, 

 of an excellent quality, for commercial purposes. The cohune ridge 

 differs materially from the pine ridge. The soil of the latter, as I have 

 said, is sandy and unproductive ; whereas that of the former is rich and 

 loamy, and possesses every agricultural capability. 



