If the leaves of this plant are rubbed upon a white cloth, they impart to it a green colour like that of any other herb. By exposure to atmospheric air it changes this colour for a fixed blue, which resists the lye of potash and soap. It is found in the mountains and low lands of the Sertoens.
Herva Lombrigueira or Arapabaca, Spigelia anthelmia:—Lin. Syst. Veget.
This plant has anthelminthic properties, and is sold in our towns. It grows abundantly in argillaceous low lands.
Urucu, Bixa Orellana. Lin.
This is a shrub, and is worthy of cultivation from the dye which the leaves afford; but it is not cultivated by any one in Pernambuco, not even as a curiosity.
Pitombeira, Meleagrinex Pernambucana:—Arrud. Cent. Plant. Pern.
This tree grows to the height of 30 or 40 feet; the timber of it is compact and may be applied to some purposes. It produces its fruit in large rounded bunches, in capsules which do not open. It has a solid kernel of two cotyledons, covered with a sweetish acid pulp, which is not unpleasant. If turkeys eat of these kernels they die immediately; from this circumstance I took the name of the genus, of which I have only found two species.
Imbuzeiro, Spondia tuberosa:—Arrud. Cent. Plant. Pern.
This is a tree which grows plentifully in the Sertoens of Pernambuco and Paraiba. It produces a fruit which is rather smaller than pullets eggs, obovate, with five points at the lower part, being the indications of the five stigmata. Its colour is yellow, and below the coriaceous epidermis, it retains a juicy pulp, of a pleasant sweetish acid taste. With this juice, and milk, curds, and sugar, a much esteemed mess is made, called imbuzada. This tree throws out long horizontal roots, which penetrate very little, and upon these are seen at short distances round tubers of eight inches (hum palmo) in diameter, full of water, like unto water-melons; these supply the vegetation of the tree in seasons of drought, and sometimes refresh the sportsman who has penetrated into the woods. The re-production of the tree is very easy by means of shoots.
Piranga, Bignonia tinctoria:—Arrud. Cent. Plant. Pern.