The zuyñandỹ, a large, lofty tree, consists of a soft wood, a thick bark turgid with copious moisture, and red flowers which seem to be composed of one large expanded leaf, as soft as silk. The bark, when stripped of the rough outer skin, and properly ground, is of much efficacy in healing wounds inflicted by the teeth or claws of a tiger.
THE ZAMUÛ.
The zamuû is ridiculous both in name and form; for the Spaniards call it palo borracho, the drunken tree. It is lofty. It has a trunk surrounded with largish thorns, and bears middle-sized flowers of a beautiful red colour, but is of very singular appearance in other respects. For the highest and lowest parts of the trunk are small, while the middle swells out to a great width, like a barrel: on which account its very soft wood is easily made into tubs, and barrels. The farther this tree grows from rivers the wider it swells, so great is its dislike to water. It bears a round fruit like certain large gourds, with a very strong rind, which fruit, when ripe, bursts open and discovers woolly flakes, like cotton, and softer than silk, but with so short a fibre that it is very difficult to draw them out into a thread. The thorns of this tree when bruised to powder, and boiled, tinge the water with a red colour which is said to cure sore eyes.
THE MANGAỸ.
The mangaỹ is about the size of a cherry-tree, and bears white flowers, which exhale a very delightful odour. It produces fruit of a golden colour, and equal in size to a large plum, which, when ripe, are agreeable to the taste, but hurtful to the stomach. Both the tree and the fruit overflow with a kind of milky, and resinous juice, called mangaỹci, in the Guarany tongue, which streams out plentifully, when you cut the bark, and is caught by the hand, or by a board. The air curdles it, and gives it the appearance of a little skin. In this state, it is rolled up into balls, which are so remarkably elastic, that when thrown lightly upon the ground they leap up very high in the air. This liquor, mangaỹci, is said to be very useful in cases of dysentery. It is much to be lamented that so very few take the trouble to collect this rosin, which would be useful in Europe in various ways.
DRAGON'S-BLOOD.
The tree caà verà, which produces the dragon's-blood, is middle-sized both as to height and bulk. Some botanists call these trees palmæ pruniferæ foliis jaccæ, but in my opinion they have no affinity whatever with palms. When a deep incision is made into their trunks, a kind of juice flows from them, resembling blood in colour and consistence, and which, when boiled on the fire, condenses into a liver-coloured rosin. Physicians complain that foreign traders sell them goat's-blood, bolo, or red Brazil wood, mixed with gum arabic, for dragon's-blood.
THE CUPAỸ.
The Paraguayrian trees, though they offer their fruits spontaneously to the natives, do not yield the oil, with which they are impregnated, without being cut. Amongst these is the cupaỹ, a large, tall tree, remarkable for its leaves, which are half a foot long, with red nerves and veins. Besides the wood, which is of a dark red colour, hard, and fit for carpenter's work, it affords a fruit which is dusky on the surface, but has a kernel resembling a walnut in size and form, and which is reckoned eatable by the Indians, and a dainty by the apes. But this tree owes its celebrity and value to the excellent oil with which it teems. To extract this most useful juice both arms, and arts are requisite. The trunk of the tree, which should neither be very old, nor too young, is cut to the pith with a knife. Soon after the incision is made, you will hear a slight crackling, caused by the oil flowing from the top and from the boughs: for the warm air, insinuating itself more freely into the pores of the wounded tree, seems to rarefy and liquidate the oil, which is naturally resinous and thick. To effect this sooner and with more certainty apply dry burning boughs to the opposite side of the tree into which the incision has been made; by their heat, the oil is more dispersed amongst the fibres of the tree, and more liquefied, which causes it to flow freely into the vessel placed beneath the trunk. Within a few hours you will find a jug full of oil. If you wish to fill many jugs cut many of these trees, which are most abundant in the northern woods of Paraguay; there are none, or very few, elsewhere. This operation must be performed in spring, in the month of September, when the moon is at full; if you undertake it in the absence of the moon, in winter, or summer, you will lose your labour. This oil, in colour, could not be distinguished from water; it has a bitter taste, exhales an odour neither sweet nor the contrary, and is useful both to painters and physicians. I will now make you acquainted with its virtues, which I learnt from others, but never tried myself. When warmed and applied to a wound, it is said to stop the flowing of the blood, and to heal the wounded person very speedily. It will cure the bites of serpents, and remove scars. Placed by way of plaster on the breast, it eases languor in the stomach; when applied to the belly, it assuages colic, and pains arising from cold. Two or three drops, swallowed with a boiled egg, will remove dysentery, and other hurtful fluxions, restore the tone to the bowels, and impart strength. Sometimes it is used as an injection with sugar from plaintain water, or oil of roses. From the oil of the cupaỹ the Brazilians make the balsam cupaỹba, of such high repute in Europe, especially the inhabitants of the province of Maranham, which abounds in those trees. But other rosins, chiefly that from the tree ybir̂apayè, of which we shall speak hereafter, are mixed with this balsam, as the singular fragrance of the smell discovers. American as well as European painters derive much benefit from the oil of the cupaỹ, for when mixed with garlick, it brightens pictures better than any varnish, and will never be obscured by time, if mixed with the colours instead of linseed oil. In wooden images, particularly, nothing is better for painting the face, hands, and every thing of flesh, of a natural colour. I can scarce persuade myself that the oil of the cupaỹ is brought quite pure from America to our shops; and that merchants do not adulterate it to increase the weight. There are three trees in Paraguay, all materially different, but much alike in name; I mean the cupaỹ, the curupaỹ, and the curupicaỹ. The curupaỹ affords bark like that of the çevil, which the Indians use to dress ox-hides with. To give them a red colour they mix the bark of the curupaỹ with that of another tree, (the caatigua, which the Abipones call achitè). The curupicaỹ, a tree not larger nor harder than the elder, has a spungy kind of wood, unfit for any purpose, that I know of, which at the slightest touch, sheds a milky juice commonly thought to be poisonous.