chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 
141 
ARNATTO. 
THIS production is indigenous, and was called by 
one class of Indians Roucou, and by another Achi- 
otte. Of its present name I know not the deriva¬ 
tion. Its botanical name is Bixa orellana. It is a 
shrub which rises to the height of seven or eight feet, 
and produces oblong hairy pods, somewhat resem¬ 
bling those of a chesnut. Within these are thirty 
or forty irregularly figured seeds, which are enve¬ 
loped in a pulp of a bright red colour, and unplea¬ 
sant smell, in appearance like the sort of paint called 
red lead when mixed up with oil; and as paint it 
was used by some tribes of the Indians, in the 
same manner as woad by the ancient Britons. 
Of the cultivation of this plant I know nothing, 
because most of the arnatto, shipped at present 
from our own islands, is, I believe, gathered from 
trees growing spontaneously. The method of 
extracting the pulp, and preparing it for market, 
is simply by boiling the seeds in clear water, till 
they are perfectly extricated; after which the seeds 
are taken out, and the water left undisturbed for 
the pulp to subside. It is then drawn off, and the 
sediment distributed into shallow vessels, and dried 
gradually in the shade. 
