368 
VEGETABLE MILE. 
state, the igua, a tree resembling the Caryocar nuciferuifl.. 
which is cultivated in Dutch and Drench Guiana, and which, 
with the almendron of Mariquita (Caryocar amygdaliferum), 
the juvia of the Esmeralda (Bertholletia excelsa), and the 
Geoffroea of the Amazon, yields the finest almonds of ah 
South America. No commercial advantage is here made 
of the igua ; but I saw vessels arrive on the coast of Terra 
Firma, that came from Demerara laden with the fruit ol the 
Caryocar tomentosum, which is the Pekea tuberculosa o 
Aublet. These trees reach a hundred teet in height, am 
present, by the beauty of their corolla, and the multitude o 
their stamens, a magnificent appearance. I should weary 
the reader by continuing the enumeration of the vegetabl 
wonders which these vast forests contain, their varie ) 
depends on the coexistence of such a great number of fami- 
lies in a small space of ground, on the stimulating power o 
light and heat, and on the perfect elaboration of the juices 
that circulate in these gigantic plants. 
We passed the night in a hut lately abandoned by al 
Indian family, who had left behind them their fishing- 
tackle, pottery, nets made of the petioles of palm-trees ; m 
short, all that composes the household furniture of 
careless race of men, little attached to property. A grea 
store of niani (a mixture of the resin of the moronob® 
and the Amyris caraiia) was accumulated round the hous - 
This is used by the Indians here, as at Cayenne, to pu° 
their canoes, and fix the bony spines of the ray at the P 011 . 1 , 
of their arrows. W e found in the same place jars filled wj 
a vegetable milk, which serves as a varnish, and is celebrat 
in the missions by the name of leehe para pinlar* (milk 
painting). They coat with this viscous juice those artic 
months a produce of nine tortas. In an excellent soil, around clun ?5.* en 
mauritia, there is every year from fifty feet square a produce ot tbir ree 
or fourteen tortas. A torta weighs three quarters of a pound, and 
tortas cost generally in the province of Caracas one silver rial, or o 
eighth of a piastre. These statements appear to me to be of 6 
importance, when we wish to compare the nutritive matter which u, t 
can obtain from the same extent of soil, by coveting it, in f 11 * aI1 j 
climates, with bread-trees, plantains, jatropha, maize, potatoes, Jj ce ’,. cia j 
corn. The tardiness of the harvest of jatropha lias, 1 believe, a ben ^ 
influence on the manners of the natives, by fixing them to the sol , 
compelling them to sojourn long on the same snot. 
