l62 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
Species of Copaifera from which capivi is obtained 
in great quantities along various tributary streams 
of the Amazon. All the species have the small 
flowers closely set on the branches of a rigid 
pinnate panicle, the flattened pink ovary standing 
out beyond the four or five white petals and the free 
stamens (eight to eleven) ; and the leaves consist of 
two or more pairs of deep green leaflets beset with 
pellucid dots. In old trees the trunk becomes 
hollow at the core, and there the oil accumulates 
and is extracted by boring with an auger. But on 
the Casiquiari I saw the trunks tapped by cutting 
out a wedge near their base, deep enough to reach 
the deposit of oil. 
Pitomba [Sapindus cerasinus, sp. n.), a shrub 6 
to lo feet high, with pinnate leaves and white 
flowers, grows on stony slopes, at Cape Mapiri and 
elsewhere, on the Tapajoz. It bears a yellow fruit 
the size of a cherry, and has something of the same 
taste. The thin pulp envelops a single seed, 
which, on tasting, I found to have a pleasant flavour 
of black currants, and therefore ate several of them ; 
nor did any ill consequences result, but when I told 
my Santarem friends of it, they said they had never 
known of the seeds being eaten, and that I had 
acted imprudently, for the plant belonged to a 
poisonous family. I knew, however, that the seeds 
of the nearly-allied Guarana were wholesome, and I 
afterwards found the seeds of most of the Sapindaceae 
are at least harmless, notwithstanding the deadly 
properties of the stems and roots of such plants as 
Paullinia pinnata. 
Tapiriba or the Tapir's fruit [Mauria juglandi- 
folia, Bth.). A tree belonging to the Anacardiaceae, 
