192 
VEGETABLE PKODTJCTIONS. 
smaller still, called " parra," grows perfectly straight, has a light- 
colored, oval, serrated furzed leaf, and bears a white clustering 
flower, like the mondongo. A fourth variety, known as " chato," 
is also very erect ; but, unlike the others, is flat. This furnishes . 
a black fruit, growing in bunches like grapes, and ripens in Octo- 
ber, November, and December. 
The medicinal plants of the Isthmus present an innumerable 
variety, many of which have yet to find a name and place in the 
annals of botany. The guaco, celebrated for its astringent quali- 
ties, and as an antidote to the bites of serpents, is particularly 
abundant ; as also the liquorice-root, the sarsaparilla, and vanilla ; 
the laurus-sassafras, the cubeba canina, and a thousand other 
plants without names, and of a number not yet ascertained. The 
superior quality of the vanilla and sarsaparilla, found in almost 
every point of the Isthmus, and their incredible profusion of 
growth, cannot fail to prove a source of the most lucrative trade. 
Already the inhabitants cultivate them to some extent ; but the 
amount under culture bears no comparison to that which grows 
wild in the dense forests. 
In the production of fruits and leguminous plants, the Isthmus 
perhaps stands unrivalled ; and it seems superfluous to enu- 
merate, even incidentally, the different varieties which constitute 
either articles for food, or those deserving of especial culture and 
adapted for purposes of exportation. Yet many of them claim 
particular notice, either for their delicious flavor, abundant 
growth, or the nutritive qualities for which they are distin- 
guished : among these we find the chico-zapote, lemoncillo, 
orange, chayote, cocoanut, lemon, pine-apple (sometimes reach- 
ing the enormous weight of fifteen pounds), melon, mamey, chi- 
raymoya, citron, mango, banana, plantain, guava, and pome- 
granate. 
At Tehuantepec, a native yam, very watery, but sweet and 
nutritious, grows in great abundance, and also an inferior variety 
of sweet potato, both of which might be raised in sufficient quan- 
tities to supply the place of the ordinary potato. On the Isthmus 
of Panama, a large yam of excellent quality (sometimes reach- 
ing forty and fifty pounds weight) is extensively raised. This 
might be introduced to great advantage on the Pacific plains ; 
