PRODUCTIONS. 



281 



There is scarcely any attempt at the regular cultivation of the earth 

 in all the province of Amazonas ; but the natural productions of its soil 

 are most varied and valuable. In the forest are twenty-three well- 

 known varieties of palm, all more or less useful. From the piassaba 

 bark (called by Humboldt the chiquichiqui palm) is obtained cordage 

 which I think quite equal in quality to the coir of India. From the 

 leaves of the tucum are obtained the fibres of which all the hammocks 

 of the country are made. Roofs of houses thatched with the gigantic 

 leaves of the bussu will last more than ten years. The seed of the 

 urucuri and inaja, are found to make the best fires for smoking India- 

 rubber; and most of the palms give fruit, which is edible in some shape 

 or other. 



Of trees fitted for nautical constructions, there are twenty -two kinds ; 

 for the construction of houses and boats, thirty-three ; for cabinet-work, 

 twelve, (some of which — such as the jacarandd, the muirapinima, or 

 tortoise-shell wood, and the macacauba — are very beautiful ; ) and for 

 making charcoal, seven. 



There are twelve kinds of trees that exude milk from their bark ; the 

 milk of some of these — such as the arvoeiro and assacii — is poisonous. 

 One is the seringa, or India-rubber tree ; and one the murure, the milk 

 of which is reported to possess extraordinary virtue in the cure of mer- 

 curialized patients, or those afflicted with syphilitic sores. Mr. Norris 

 told me that a young American, dreadfully afflicted with the effects of 

 mercury, and despairing of cure, had come to Para to linger out what 

 was left of life in the enjoyment of a tropical clime. A few doses of 

 the murure sent him home a well man, though it is proper to say that 

 he died suddenly a few years afterwards. Captain Littlefield, the master 

 of the barque " Peerless," told me that he had a seaman on board his 

 vessel covered with sores from head to foot, who was radically cured 

 with a few teaspoonfuls of murure. Its operation is said to be very 

 powerful, making the patient cold and rigid, and depriving him of sense 

 for a short time. Mr. Norris has made several attempts to get it home, 

 but without success. A bottle which I brought had generated so fetid 

 a gas that I was glad to toss it from my hand when I opened it at the 

 Observatory. 



It is idle to give a list of the medicinal plants, for their name is legion. 

 The Indians use nearly everything as a " remedio." One, however, is 

 peculiar — it is called manacd. Von Martius, a learned German, who 

 spent several years in this country, thus describes it : " Omnis planta 

 magna radix potissimum, systema lymphaticum summa efficacia excitat, 

 particulas morbificas liquescit, sudore et urina eliminat. Magni usus in 



