238 



STAY AT MORRO d'aRARA, 



into ropes for ships. The sohd nut is turned for the purpose of 

 making rosaries. 



9. Cocos de Aricuii, or Aracui : a palm from fifteen to eighteen 

 feet high, which grows in the sand on the sea-coast, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Alcobapa and Bebnonte, with three, four, or more 

 leaves, the footstalks of which have at their root, on both sides, blunt 

 thornlike excrescences. When the fro?ide.s fall off, the footstalk re- 

 mains : this forms a very rough short stem. The frondes are beauti- 

 fully arched, of a shining green, and smooth. The bunch of fruit is 

 composed of numerous round stone fruits, of the size of a large plum, 

 which are covered with a fine orange-coloured flesh. Light hats are 

 made of the leaves. 



B. Species having real thorns. 



10. Cocos de A'iri ass{i ; the great airi palm, (called in some parts 

 of Minas Geraes hrejeuba,) with a trunk only from 20 to 30 feet 

 high, which is of a dark brown colour, and covered all over with dark 

 brown thorns, which stand in -rings. The bunch of fruit is com- 

 posed of small, very hard, dark brown nuts, of an oval shape, a 

 little pointed, and of the size of a plum. This palm forms, in 

 places where it abounds, impenetrable thickets : it grows in dry 

 woods. Farther north it does not occur ; I did not meet with it even 

 in the country about Porto Seguro. Hence, while the Puris, the 

 Patachos, and the Botocudos on the Rio Doce, make their bows of 

 the dark brown wood of this tree, the tribes living farther to the 

 north, even the Botocudos on the Rio Grande de Belmonte, and the 

 Patachos on the Rio do Prado, employ for this purpose the Pao d'arco 

 (bow-wood, hignonia.) 



11. Cocos de A'iri mirim (pronounced miri^J has a slender prickly 

 stem, with leaves close to the ground and on the stem ; the fruit is 

 small, and is eaten by children. 



12. Cocos de Tiicum ; has a stem fifteen palms high, and grows 

 in marshes ; whereas the airi kinds prefer dry situations. The stem 



