the body being passed into it, it is
worn in time of rain. Hence the saying of the old missionaries, that in
the "forests of America garments were found ready-made on the trees."

Many other trees were noticed valuable for their fruits, or leaves, or
bark, or roots, or their wood. There was the well-known "seringa," or
India-rubber tree; the great courbaril, the "dragon's-blood" tree, not
that celebrated tree of the East but one of a different genus from whose
white bark flows a red blood-like juice.

They saw, also, a species of cinnamon-tree though not the cinnamon of
commerce; the large tree that bears the Brazilian nut-meg (the Puxiri);
and that one, also, a large forest tree, that bears the nuts known as
"Tonka beans," and which are used in the flavouring of snuff.

But of all the trees which our travellers saw on that day, none made
such a impression upon them as the "juvia," or Brazil-nut tree. This
tree is not one with a thick trunk; in fact, the largest ones are not
three feet in diameter, but it rises to a height of 120 feet. Its trunk
is branchless for more than half that height, and the branches then
spread out and droop, like the fronds of the palm. They are naked near
their bases, but loaded towards the top with tufts of silvery green
leaves, each two feet in length. The tree does not blossom until its
fifteenth year, and then it bears violet-coloured flowers; although
there is another species, the "sapucaya," which has yellow ones. But it
is neither the trunk, nor the branches, nor the leaves, nor yet the
flowers of this tree, that render it such an object of curiosity. It is
the great woody and spherical pericarps that contain the nuts or fruits
that are wonderful. These are often as large as the head of a child, and
as hard as the shell of the cocoa-nut! Inside is found a large
number--twenty or more--of those triangular-shaped nuts which you may
buy at any Italian warehouse under the name of "Brazil-nuts."

CHAPTER XLII.

THE FOREST FESTIVAL.

In consequence of their having rested but poorly on the preceding night,
it was determined that they should land at an early hour; and this they
did, choosing an open place on the shore. It was a very pretty spot, and
they could see that the woods in the background were comparatively open,
as though there were some meadows or prairies between.

These openings, however, had been caused by fire. There had been a
growth of cane. It had been burned off