[ ] [ [73] ] "C'est cette eau qui entre ses autres vertus, a la propriété d'effacer toutes les rides du visage, et de lui donner une couleur blanche et vermeille pourveu qu'on l'en lave aussi-tost que le fruit est tombé de l'arbre."—De Rochefort.
[ ] [ [74] ] Plaintain-tree—Banana.
[ ] [ [75] ] Rhus Copallinum (Linn.) The Mexicans gave the name of "copal," to all resins and odoriferous gums. The "copal," par excellence, is a white and transparent resin, which flows from a tree whose leaves resemble those of the oak, but longer; this tree is called "copal-qua-huitl," or tree which bears the copal; they have also the "copal-qua-huitl-petlahuae," whose leaves are the largest of the species, and like those of the sumach. The "copal-quauhxiotl," with long and narrow leaves; the "tepecopulli-qua-huitl," or copal of the mountains, whose resin is like the incense of the old world, called by the Spaniards, "incienso de las Indias," and some other inferior kinds.
[ ] [ [76] ] Batatas—sweet potatoe, yam.
[ ] [ [77] ] Champlain clearly means the rattle-snake (Crotulus), but seems to have confounded it with the horned snake, from the "plumes" on the head.
[ ] [ [78] ] Probably "Lacerta Iguana" (Linn.), some of which grow to a great size. The flesh was considered a delicacy by the Indians and by many Europeans, but eating of it too frequently was supposed to occasion a wasting of the body. De Rochefort says: "On ne conseille néanmoins d'en manger souvent à cause qu'elle dessêche trop le corps et lui fait perdre tout son embonpoint."—Hist. Nat. et Morale des Antilles.
[ ] [ [79] ] In another room there were great earthen vessels, some filled with water, others with earth, in which were snakes as big as a man's thigh; and crocodiles, which they call caymans, as thick as a man's thigh.—Gage, Description of the Palace of Montezuma.
[ ] [ [80] ] Tigris Americana (Linn.)—Jaguar.
[ ] [ [81] ] Viverra civetta (Linn.)—the Gato de Algalia of the Spaniards.