Palms of British Guiana. 255 
At Orealla, on the Corentyn, this grows curiously 
intermingled with another, somewhat similar, species 
(B. megalocarpa, Trail). 
I have seen a curiously malformed seed of B. major, 
which was found, and long treasured as ' obeah,' by 
a black field-labourer. It certainly was a curiously close 
natural imitation of a human head ; the three pit-like 
markings on the seed had got into the position 
of eyes and mouth ; in the centre of these the 
apex of the seed had developed into an abnormal ridge, 
well representing the nose ; while the fibrous coating 
of the seed had been loosened, and had been lost except 
where a patch fairly represented the hair. Nor did the 
closest examination reveal that this seed had been 
tampered with by human hands. 
B. minor, Jacq. 
(= Guilielma speciosa, Mart :) 
Local Name. 
Creole (?) Paripie. 
Hardly a squatter's settlement, and even hardly any 
old established Indian settlement, is without its very 
beautiful and equally useful clump of this palm ; and, 
as these settlements are often deserted and soon be- 
came entirely effaced, it is not very rare to see the 
paripie growing where there is now no human habitation. 
Yet the plant is not really indigenous in Guiana; indeed, 
I believe no place where it is certainly indigenous is 
known. It is much planted for the sake of its fruit, which, 
borne in large numbers, twice a year, form, when 
boiled or roasted, a most delicious vegetable, with a very 
pleasant chestnut-like, but somewhat bitter, flavour. The 
fruit is spherical, or in some varieties oval, about 
