THE BRAZILIAN FOREST 
iron-tree (pao-ferro), whose name fitly indicates its char¬ 
acter, are of extraordinary hardness. The Brazilian 
forest, although not specially rich in woods for building 
and naval purposes, is nevertheless most abundant in 
lactiferous, oleiferous, fibrous, medicinal, resinous, and 
industrial plants — such for instance as can be used for 
tanning purposes, etc. No country in the world is as 
rich as Brazil in its natural growth of rubber trees; nor 
have I ever seen anywhere else such beautiful and 
plentiful palms; the piassava ( Attalia fumifera M.), the 
assahy {Euterpe oleracea L.), the burity {Mauritia 
vinifera M.), the carnahuberia ( Copernicia cerifera M.), 
the palmito {Euterpe edulis M.), and many others. I 
shall give a more detailed description of the most impor¬ 
tant of these plants as we proceed on our journey and 
find them in their habitat. 
Where, perhaps, Brazil’s greatest richness lies, is in 
its hundreds of thousands of square miles of wonderful 
pasture lands — perfectly ideal, with plenty of excellent 
water and a delicious climate — capable of some day 
fattening enough cattle to supply half the world with 
meat. 
All these wonderful riches are absolutely dormant; 
more than that, absolutely wasted for lack of population, 
for lack of roads, trails, railways, or navigation of the 
rivers. The coast of Brazil is highly civilized, and so, 
more or less, is the immediate neighbourhood of large 
cities; but the moment you leave those cities, or the 
narrow zone along the few hundred kilometres of railways 
which now exist, you immediately relapse into the Middle 
Ages. When you get beyond the comparatively narrow 
belt of semi-civilization, along the coast, Brazil is almost 
as unknown as Mars or the moon. The people who know 
least the country are, curiously enough, the Brazilians 
themselves. Owing greatly to racial apathy, they care 
little for the trouble of developing their beautiful land. 
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