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PROVINCE OF PARA. 



in certain doses, is an efficacious remedy against the maw-worm ; the massa- 

 randuba distils another liquor, which occasionally makes fine gum ; the juice of 

 the assacu is one of the most subtle venoms ; the resin of the getaicica is applied 

 to the varnishing of earthern ware ; the ashes of the chiriuba are esteemed the 

 best known for the manufacture of soap. Among fruit trees are the orange, 

 mangaba, saracaza, cajue-nut ; the atta, or pine, is common, and the fruit very 

 fine ; the fig and vine are rare and do not fructify well ; there are, also, the 

 fruits of abiu, inga, assiahy, bacaba, inaja, cotitiriba, cupuassu, aguru. The 

 cocoa-nut trees are seen only in the neighbourhood of the sea ; the cedar is very 

 large and numerous, also the sapucaya ; the plants of vanilla and indigo grow 

 spontaneously. The chesnut, that is the tree to whose fruit is commonly given 

 the name of castanha do Maranham, differs from the sapucaya, with which it is 

 sometimes confounded. The cautecuc passes, and with justice, for one of the 

 most useful trees of this province, where it is common ; it is of the euphorbium 

 species, and from its trunk is extracted, by incision, a liquid, which condenses 

 and turns into an elastic gum, with which, through the medium of moulds, are 

 made scringes of various kinds, and when its juice is applied to dress renders 

 it impenetrable to water. The cocoa shrub, or tree, are of two kinds, one 

 produced by nature, the other by cultivation. Here is, likewise, sarsaparilla, 

 ipicacuenha, butua, jallap, ginger; also, the pechurum-ivee and that aflbrding 

 the clove, denominated cravo do Maranham and cucheri among the Indians. 



The cultivation has here commenced of the laurel, or bay-tree, similar to 

 that of the Mollucas. The latter is an aromatic drug of such particular flavour 

 that nothing could be substituted for it, until the seventeenth century, when 

 that of Maranham was discovered, which, though different in the form, is 

 otherwise so similar and so adapted to all the uses of the first that it has caused 

 not only a considerable reduction in the price, but in the consumption of it 

 among European nations. The trees that produce it the best, grow in the same 

 latitudes of Gram Para as the others do in the Mollucca islands, and there is 

 no doubt that the soil and climate of this province is capable, with proper 

 management, of producing any thing that any other part of the world can 

 afford. The bread fruit tree has been recently introduced and prospers as in 

 its native soil. The very small portion, indeed, of this part of the Brazil that 

 is cultivated is appropriated to the culture of mandioca, Indian corn, legumes, 

 coffee, cotton, the sugar cane, of which the engenhos at present are not nume- 

 rous, and rice, which is very abundant ; these, with cocoa and other minor 



