541 



a hardness, which is scarcely to be found in the 

 wood of the trunks of trees. The pericarp of 

 the bertholletia has traces of four cells, and I 

 have sometimes found even five. The seeds 

 have two very distinct coverings, and this cir- 

 cumstance renders the structure of the fruit 

 more complicated than in the lecythis, the 

 pekea or caryocar, and the saouvari. The first 

 tegument is osseous, or ligneous, triangular,, 

 tuberculated on it's exterior surface, and of the 

 colour of cinnamon. Four or five, and some- 

 times eight of these triangular nuts, are attached 

 to a central partition. As they are loosened in 

 time, they move freely in the large spherical 

 pericarp. The capuchin monkeys (simia chiro- 

 potes) are singularly fond of the chesnuts of 

 Brazil; and the noise made by the seeds, when 

 the fruit is shaken as it fell from the tree, ex- 

 cites the appetency of these animals in the high- 

 est degree. I have most frequently found only 

 from fifteen to twenty-two nuts in each fruit. 

 The second tegument of the almonds is mem- 

 branaceous, and of a brown yellow. Their taste 

 is extremely agreeable when they are fresh ; but 

 the oil, with which they abound, and which is 

 so useful in the arts, becomes easily rancid. 

 Although at the Upper Oroonoko we often ate 

 considerable quantities of these almonds for 

 want of other food, we never felt any bad effects 

 from so doing. The spherical pericarp of the 



