280 



size from the ursus americanus ; the missionaries 

 call them osso carnicero, to distinguish thern from 

 the ossopalmero, or tamanoir (myrmecophaga 

 jubata), and from the osso hormigero, or anteater 

 tamandua. These animals are good to eat ; the 

 first two defend themselves by rising on their 

 hind feet. The tamanoir of BufFon is called 

 uaraca by the Indians ; it is irascible and 

 courageous, which is extraordinary in an animal 

 without teeth. We found, as we advanced, 

 some vistas in the forest, which appeared to us 

 so much the richer, as it became more accessible. 

 We here gathered some new species of coffee 

 (the American tribe, with flowers in panicles, 

 forms probably a particular genus) ; the galega 

 piscatorum, of which the Indians make use, as 

 they do of jacquinia, and of a composite plant 

 of the Rio Temi, as a kind of barbasco, to intox- 

 icate fish*; and finally, the liana, known in 

 those countries by the name of vejuco de mava- 

 cure, which yields the famous poison curare. It 

 is neither a phyllanthus, nor a coriaria, as Mr. 

 Wildenouw thought, but, according to Mr. 

 Kunths researches, very probably a'strychnos. 

 We shall have occasion farther on, to speak of 

 this venomous substance, which is an important 

 object of trade among the savages. If a travel- 



* Kunth, in the Nov. Gen. y vol. iii, p. 371. The compo- 

 site of the Temi is the baillieria barbasco. (Ibid. vol. iv^ 

 p. 226.) 



