539 



tury past to the inhabit ants of Grand Para, by 

 whom they are sent either directly to Europe, 

 or to Cayenne, where they are called touka. 

 The celebrated botanist, Mr. Correa de Serra, 

 told us, that this tree abounds in the forests 

 in the neighbourhood of Macapa, at the mouth 

 of the Amazon ; that it there bears the name of 

 capucaya ; and that the inhabitants gather the 

 almonds, like those of the lecythis, to express 

 the oil. A cargo of almonds of the ju via, brought 

 into Havre, captured by a privateer, in 1807, 

 was employed for the same purpose. 



The tree, that yields the chesnuts of Brazil, is 

 generally not more than two or three feet in 

 diameter, but attains one hundred or one hun- 

 dred and twenty feet in height. It does not 

 resemble the mammese, the star-apple, and seve- 

 ral other trees of the tropics, the branches of 

 which (as in the laurel-trees of the temperate 

 zone) rise almost straight toward the sky. The 

 branches of the bertholletia are open, very long, 

 almost entirely bare toward the base, and loaded 

 at their summits with tufts of very close foliage. 

 This disposition of the semicoriaceous leaves, 

 a little silvery beneath, and more than two feet 

 long, makes the branches bend down toward the 

 ground, like the fronds of the palm-trees. We 

 did not see this majestic tree in blossom ; it is 

 not loaded with flowers* till it's fifteenth year, 



* According to accounts somewhat vague, they are yel- 



