44 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
individuals in the Amazon valley, have scarcely a 
single example of large or gaily-coloured flowers. 
Ciirious Fruits 
Fruits remarkable for their size, beauty, or 
grotesqueness are perhaps more frequent than 
handsome flowers. The large pods of the Ingas 
have been described above, and other Leguminifers 
bear pods equally large, sometimes containing 
enormous flattened beans as big as the palm of the 
hand. The pods of Bignoniads are filled with 
closely- packed flattened seeds, bordered by a 
delicate transparent wing often an inch or more in 
breadth. Globose heavy fruits, like cannon-balls, 
might seem out of place on the scraggy branches 
of the humble Cuyeira (Crescentia Cujete) ; but are 
far less dangerous there than when hung on the 
lofty Castanheira (BerthoUetia), falling from which 
they often bury themselves in the earth, and would 
infallibly crack the skull of incautious biped or 
quadruped that intercepted their descent. The 
BerthoUetia has an exceedingly thick woody shell, 
without valves or any other natural opening, so 
that the seeds (Brazil nuts) can only escape from it 
when it finally rots away ; although rodent animals, 
such as agoutis and pacas, and monkeys often make 
a forcible entry when it is partially decayed. The 
fruits of the allied genus Lecythis have, however, a 
curious convex lid, which comes clean off the cup- 
shaped capsule when ripe, permitting the ready 
dispersion of the seeds ; hence their Indian name 
Macacarecuya or Monkey-cups. We have nearly 
the same thing on a small scale in the pepperbox- 
