318 
Varaucoco is a plant that twines round large trees, 
and bears a violet-coloured fruit as large as peaches, 
of ^n admirable taste, extremely sweet, but viscous, 
with four great kernels in the middle. The wood, 
though worm-eaten in a year, is used for hoops : a 
red gum, like blood, oozes through the bark, thick and 
resinous, which dissolves by heat, like gum lactis, 
and has nearly the same smell. 
Rhaa, called in the country the Dragon tree, (from 
the figure of that animal, as is reported, being dis¬ 
tinctly imprinted on the fruit when the skin is off), 
grows as large as a walnut-tree, and by making an 
aperture in the bark of the trunk or branches, a gum 
springs out as red as blood, on which account the 
natives called the tree rhaa , or blood ; and apothecaries, 
the gum dragon’s-blood. The wood is white, and soon 
worm eaten; the leaves like those of a pear-tree, but 
longer. The fruit, called Mafoutra, has the form and 
size of a small pear, the end thicker, with five points 
or extremities, which contain a kernel covered by one 
membrane, of the form, colour, and almost the taste 
of a nutmeg. It is affirmed that the figure of a 
dragon was imprinted on this fruit under the skin that 
covers it; but Flacourt, who opened many, discovered 
the falsehood of this account. A fat thick oil is 
extracted from the kernel, which is counted a specific 
in inflamations, erysipelas, itch, and extraordinary 
swellings : a decoction of the bark is useful in dysen¬ 
teric cases. 
Lalanda, is a jessamine of the height of a small 
