62 
The Brazil-Nut Tree. 
156. The still structurally complete condition of the houses showed 
that the occupants had left themi but a short time before, and yet the 
provision^field was so weed-grown that Älimosa, ^Solanum and Cardio had 
already stifled the Manihot: only a few Miisa paradlsiaca and sapicntnm, 
with broad torn leaves to disappear shortly in their turn, still overtopped 
the rank growth. A palm growing thickly in clusters on the edge of a 
small oasis, attracted my attention : it was niiy first specimlen of the 
beautiful and delicate Mauritia oculeata Humb. Bonp. Notwithstanding 
that my brother on his previous journeys had met with it fre'quently on 
the banks of the Rio Negro, it was also the first that he had seen in 
British Guiana. Although the ÄI. aruleata neither in height nor girtli 
approaches the M. flexuosa, it nevertheless possesses the graceful growth 
peculiar to this genus, which makes it one of the grandest ornaments of 
the tropical landscape. The Wapisianas called it Urukusch. Tlie oasis 
that now opened its way to us was formed almost exclusively of Bacfris, 
Astrocarj/iirn and Maximiliana , intersi^ersed with an occasional l)ig foli- 
age-tree, amongst which I recognised to my great joy the giant Juvia or 
Brazil-nut ( BerthoUctia crcclf^a Hum|b. Bonp.). Tlie huge trunk, 
straight as a thread, rose on an average 80 or 90 feet before it gave off its 
first branches, from out of the midst of which it continued to rise another 
50 to GO feet. An immense quantity of opened seed-capsules from, 10 to 
IS inches in circumference, robbed of their contents, were scattered 
around. Each of these qases contaiiis fromi IG to 18 triangular seeds 
known commercially as Braml or Para-nut, but they generally lose a 
great deal of their lovely taste on the journey. At the tin^e of maturity 
when the lids of the capsules burst and the ripe seeds fall the site of 
these imposing trees is not alone the place of meeting for Indians, but is 
also the plavground for a numlV)er of rodents, bush-hogs and monkeys. 
Tlie nut is a tit-bit just as much in request by the latter as by the former. 
This is especially the case with the monkeys who will invest such a tree 
in whole troops stories are even told to the effect that when, on account 
of the size, they cannot bite open the rocky hard case that often drops 
unopened, they will hammer it with stones in order to extract the nuts 
desired. The' cunning creatures have certainly not yet brought their 
deductions to such a "pitch of perfection, but they do indeed leave the 
opening of those seed-capsules that are beyond the powers of their own 
dental system, to the care of other animials, particularly the Aguti 
{Dasuprocta Aguti) and Laba [ Codogcnys Paca ), as well as to the bush- 
hogs (Dicotyles laMatns and D. torquatus) from undo.- whose very trot- 
ters, as soon as a hole is made, they steal the hard-earned prize, to rusli 
with it up the nearest tree and tliere devour the proceeds in peace. If the 
trick does not succeed with the capsule as a whole, it certainly comes off 
with scattered nuts. From en«iuiries made, the BcrthoUetia seems to 
prefer a stony soil, and to be seldom present higher than 1,500 nor lower 
than 400 feet above the sea level : its geographical distribution must be 
fairly extensive, for according to our present and my brother's previous 
experiences, it stretches along the plains between 57° and 68° Long. 
and between 6° Lat, S. and 4° Lat, N, 
