100 



This plant is peculiar to moist places, and it always 

 perishes when not supplied with water. It grows 

 more luxuriantly and to a larger size in the valiies 

 between the Andes, where it frequently exceeds the 

 height which I have mentioned; in low grounds 

 near the sea it is only of a moderate height. The 

 black for dying is obtained from the juice of the 

 root, and it might answer equally as well for ink, as 

 its viscosity and the beautiful black it acquires from 

 time, give it ail the requisite qualities, it is also 

 used for tanning leather; but for this purpose it be- 

 comes necessary to pound it, and the smell it exhales 

 is so strong, that the workmen can rarely endure it 

 above half an hour at a time. The stalk contains a 

 white pith of an acidulous taste, which the country 

 people eat in summer,* and the shoemakers use the 

 wood for their lasts, as they believe it more durable 

 than any other. Another species of the panke 

 (panke acaulis) called in the language of the coun- 

 try diítacio, grows in sandy and moist places; the 

 root is of the shape of a turnip, as large as a man's 

 arm, and of a sweetish taste ; it is highly esteemed 

 by the inhabitants, but produces no kind of dye. 

 This plant is without a stalk, and puts forth from 

 the root a group of small leaves, ornamented in the 



* This plant is refrigeratory, and a decoction of the leaves is 

 given in fevers. The ends of the leaves, stripped of their exte- 

 rior covering, are also eaten raw, and are of a sweet and very 

 pleasant tnste. The dyers make use of the root to obtain a black, 

 by cuíthíg it ÍRto sm.iii pieces, which they boil with a certain por- 

 tion of black earth, and the tanners prepare their skins by boiliijg 

 them with it in warm vf'àter.—Fezd/ié^ vol. ii. 



