350 



PROVINCE OF SEREGIPE D' EL REY. 



which tow is made for caulking. Amongst the medicinal plants, there are 

 ipecacuanha, alcasus, paroba, Jesuits' bark, orange tree of the country, cassia, 

 and sangninaria. Orange and other fruit trees are very scarce. Baunilha is a 

 useful vegetable, and grows here spontaneously, but its cultivation is not at- 

 tended to. The cocoa tree is unknown, although the soil is well adapted for 

 it. The coffee tree, which is such a lucrative branch of commerce to its culti- 

 vators in the provinces of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, is yet seen in few places, 

 and there scantily. 



Upon the margins of the river St. Francisco there is a tree, for whose primi- 

 tive name was substituted that of mancanzeira by the Portuguese ; the largest 

 do not exceed the size of an orange tree, and generally have many trunks toge- 

 ther of little height, wdth the leaf larger than those of a lemon tree, thick, ellip- 

 tical, smooth, and of a dark green. In the same tree there is fruit in the form 

 of a lemon-peel and a fig; but the greater part, and principally the largest, 

 have the figure of large toraates, the si/e of a wild apple, the rind soft and full 

 of pimples. The pulp is yellow, of an insipid taste, bitter, and smells like a 

 quince. The smallest have an oval stone ; the largest have four or more : the 

 rind is hard, the kernel white and bitter. This fruit is not eaten, but is excel- 

 lent as preserves, made similar to marmalade. This tree, which never sur- 

 passes a shrub in dry lands, is always heavily laden ; and the troquaze pigeon 

 and the land tortoise become fat upon the stones, after the fruit falls to the 

 ground. The eastern portion of this province is in part appropriated to mandi- 

 oca, Indian corn, feijao, cotton, and the sugar cane, for which there are near 

 three hundred engenhos; these are objects of exportation as well as hides, 

 flintstone, grindstone, cattle, horses, hogs, and the ticum palm. In this part 

 there are extensive tracts almost covered with a small cane, with the leaves 

 short, not exceeding the width of the wheat leaf, and the knots armed with 

 sharp points, so that no quadruped enters or traverses the plantations. The 

 oil of mamona is universally used for lights, and might become an abundant 

 branch of exportation. The water-melon in few districts is large or good. 



The towns of this province are, 



Seregipe 

 St. Amaro 



St. Luzia '^in the eastern part. 

 Itabaianna 

 Villa Nova 



Propiha "J 



Lagarto > in the western part. 

 Thomar J 



