552 



ground is 5 feet 5^ inches. The smaller tree measures 

 63 feet, with a breadth of foliage of 27 feet and a girth of 

 2 feet 7 inches at 3 feet from the ground. 



The leaves are oblong and wavy smooth, rather 

 firm in texture, dull dark green, paler on the back about 

 12-16 inches long and 4 inches wide. The flower spikes 

 stand erect on the top of the branches and are 2 feet 

 long, a quarter of an inch thick, green and bearing many 

 flowers which open one by one. They are sessile and 

 creamy white, yellower on the back and of a very curi- 

 ous structure, the stamens being collected into a curious 

 dense mass in the form of a bearded lip. 



The fruit takes upwards of a year to ripen, and by 

 no means do all on the spike ripen. Indeed, this would 

 be impossible as the weight of the fruit would break the 

 inflorescence even if it did not break the bough bearing 

 the spikes. 



The biggest uf the trees produced this year a hundred 

 and eight fruits, the smaller one, which grows only 

 within a few feet of the other, bore only a few fruits. 

 The fruits are round and woody and brown in colour, 

 about 6 inches through. They weigh about 2 lbs. 7 oz. 

 and each contains from 12 to 15 nuts, which weighs 

 altogether gi oz., each nut when peeled weighing half 

 an ounce. The nuts are beautifully packed in the capsule 

 and quite fill it. When it is ripe the fruit falls to the 

 ground while in this differing from the allied Sapucaia 

 nut (Lecythis oleracea) also in the Botanic Gardens, in 

 which the top forms a lid which becomes detached and 

 lets the seeds fall out. On account of this the Brazil-nut 

 is cheaper in the markets than the Sapucaia nut, as the 

 natives find it quicker to pick up the whole fruit of the 

 Brazil-nut than the scattered seeds of the Sapucaia. 



The seeds from the trees in the Botanic Gardens 

 have as yet failed to germinate, possibly our fruit falls 

 before it is quite ripe, but they have been highly appre- 



