VARIOUS SPECIES OF THE CARAQUATA.
Many species of this plant are commonly to be met with in Paraguay. I will briefly mention those with which I am best acquainted. The caraquatà guazù, or the great caraquatà, is supported by a short thick root. It consists of about twenty very thick leaves, dentated on both sides, remarkably sharp, and about two feet in length, in the midst of which rises a stalk, like a trunk, five, and often more feet high. The top of it is crowned with yellow flowers. The Indian women spin threads of the fibres of the leaves, as others do of flax, or hemp, and weave them into cords, cloths, and nets. But no time, or art can make these threads perfectly white, nor will they hold any colour with which they may be dyed. Creditable authors write that in the province of Guayana such beautiful stockings are woven of this same thread, that they are sometimes preferred to silk ones in France for strength, and softness. Another kind of caraquatà, very like the former, is seen in the woods, but it cannot be spun into threads. In the woods of Mbaèverà, the Indian women who inhabit there make thread, and garments, not of the caraquatà, but of the bark of the tree pinô, after it has been properly cleaned: for the webs woven of the thread of this bark, after being exposed for sometime to the sun, and frequently sprinkled with water, become beautifully white and will retain any colour with which they are dyed, extremely well. It is much to be lamented that this tree pinô is found in the larger woods only, and is not to be seen in many parts of Paraguay. Another caraquatà of a different shape produces a kind of artichoke, or anana. It bears fruit of a scarlet colour, and has plenty of seed contained in a straight slender stalk. It is surrounded with very large leaves, denticulated like a saw, and pointing towards the ground, in the centre of which travellers find a tolerable supply of very clear water, and with it often quench their thirst in dry deserts, where sometimes not a drop of water is to be found. Another caraquatà with leaves very like a sword, and armed on both sides with a threatening row of thorns, bears fruit of a pale yellow within and without, full of black seeds, and pregnant with an acidulated, and pleasant juice. But to extricate this fruit from the many thorns, with which the leaves that guard it are armed, without being wounded, is the labour and the difficulty. Of this fruit mixed with sugar a very wholesome drink, and an excellent medicine for various diseases are made. These, and other kinds of caraquatà are of great use to the Americans. Planted around gardens, and the buildings of estates, they, by their thorns, prevent all secret, and improper access, more effectually than any other kind of hedge, and will survive every inclemency of the weather. Their leaves supply the place of flax in making thread, as well as of tiles in covering temporary huts, and their thorns serve for needles. Their leaves, on being pricked, yield a thick juice which washerwomen use for soap, and when boiled on the fire are fit to be eaten. The Indians look upon the various fruits of the caraquatà as food. From their leaves, when scraped with a knife, flows a sweet liquor, which is thickened on the fire, and condensed into sugar. This liquor of the caraquatà, mixed in water with the seeds of oranges, or lemons, undergoes a vinous fermentation; exposed to the sun it turns to vinegar. By what method, and in what cases, wounds and disorders are healed by the juice of the caraquatà, would be long to tell. A polypodium, preferable in the opinion of physicians to any European one, grows on the caraquatà.