of, when split into narrow planks, for the
construction of walls and flooring of houses.

The fruit is about the size of a cranberry, and of a dark brown colour.
When boiled and crushed it yields a quantity of juice of about the
consistency of chocolate, somewhat of the colour of blackberry juice,
when it has a sweetish taste--and is eaten, made into cakes with the
flour of the mandioca root. From it also is formed the favourite
beverage of the people. To obtain the fruit, the native fastens a strip
of palm-leaves round his instep, thus binding his feet together, to
enable him to climb the slippery trunk, which he does with wonderful
rapidity, to obtain the fruit at its summit.

Wherever a native village exists, there are seen growing in clusters,
beautiful ornaments beside the palm-thatched huts, the tall and elegant
pupunha, or peach palm--Guilielma speciosa--to the height of sixty feet,
and often perfectly straight. A single bunch of the fruit weighs as
much as a man can carry, and on each tree several are borne. It takes
its name from the colour of the fruit, not from its flavour or nature,
for it is dry and mealy, and may be compared in taste to a mixture of
chestnuts and cheese. It is eagerly devoured by vultures, who come in
quarrelsome flocks to the trees when it is ripe. Dogs often feed on it.
It is one of the few trees which the natives brought with them, it is
said, from their original home, and have here cultivated from time
immemorial. The fruit, when boiled, is nearly as mealy as a potato; and
in perfection is the size of a large peach. It is generally supposed
that there is more nutriment in the fruit than in fish,--about a dozen
forming a meal for a grown-up person. The leaves of its crown are
evenly arched over, forming a deep green vault--the more beautiful from
the rich colour of the foliage. When the heavy cluster of ripe red
fruit hangs under its dark vault, the tree is in its greatest beauty.

The palms are among the most characteristic features of tropical
scenery. The variety of their forms, fruit, foliage, and flowers is
perfectly bewildering, and yet as a group their character is
unmistakable. On the whole, no family of trees is more similar;
generically and specifically, none is more varied. Their leaves follow
the simple arrangement of those of grasses, in which the leaves are
placed alternately on opposite sides of the stem, thus dividing the
space round it in halves. As the