There are twelve kinds of trees that exude milk from their bark; the milk of some of these—such as the arvoeiro and assacú—is poisonous. One is the seringa, or India-rubber tree; and one the mururé, the milk of which is reported to possess extraordinary virtue in the cure of mercurialized patients, or those afflicted with syphilitic sores. Mr. Norris told me that a young American, dreadfully afflicted with the effects of mercury, and despairing of cure, had come to Pará to linger out what was left of life in the enjoyment of a tropical clime. A few doses of the mururé sent him home a well man, though it is proper to say that he died suddenly a few years afterwards. Captain Littlefield, the master of the barque "Peerless," told me that he had a seaman on board his vessel covered with sores from head to foot, who was radically cured with a few teaspoonfuls of mururé. Its operation is said to be very powerful, making the patient cold and rigid, and depriving him of sense for a short time. Mr. Norris has made several attempts to get it home, but without success. A bottle which I brought had generated so fetid a gas that I was glad to toss it from my hand when I opened it at the Observatory.
It is idle to give a list of the medicinal plants, for their name is legion. The Indians use nearly everything as a "remedio." One, however, is peculiar—it is called manacá. Von Martius, a learned German, who spent several years in this country, thus describes it: "Omnis planta magna radix potissimum, systema lymphaticum summa efficacia excitat, particulas morbificas liquescit, sudore et urina eliminat. Magni usus in syphilitide, ideo mercurio vegetal a quibusdam dicitur. Cortex interior et omnes partes herbaceæ amaritudine nauseosa, fauces vellicante, pollent. Dosí parva resolvit, majore exturbat alvum et urinam ciet, abortum movet, venenum a morsu serpentum excutit; nimia dosi tamquam venenum acre agit. De modo, quo hauriri solet, conferas Martium, in Buchner Repertor. Pharm. XXXI, 379. Apud nonnullas Indorum gentes in regione Amazonica habitantes ejus extractum in venenum sagittarum ingreditur."
Its virtue in rheumatic affections was much extolled; and as I was suffering from pains in the teeth and shoulder, I determined to try its efficacy; but, understanding that its effects were powerful, and made a man feel as if a bucket of cold water were suddenly poured down his back, I begged my kind hostess, Donna Leocadia, to make the decoction weak. Finding no effects from the first teacupful, I took another; but either I was a peculiar patient, or we had not got hold of the proper root. I felt nothing but a very sensible coldness of the teeth and tip of the tongue. Next morning I took a stronger decoction, but with no other effect. I think it operated upon the liver, causing an increased secretion of bile. I brought home the leaves and root.
The root of the murapuama, a bush destitute of leaves, is used as an analeptic remedy, giving force and tone to the nerves.
A little plant called douradinha, with a yellow flower, something like our dandelion, that grows in the streets at Barra, is a powerful emetic.
A clear and good burning oil is made from the Brazil nut; also from the nut of the andiroba, which seems a sort of bastard Brazil nut, bearing the same relation to it that our horse-chestnut does to the edible chestnut. Both these oils, as also the oil made from turtle-eggs, are used to adulterate the copaiba. The trader has to be on the alert that he is not deceived by these adulterations. Another very pretty oil or resin is called tamacuaré; its virtues are much celebrated for the cure of cutaneous affections.
The banks of the rivers and inland lakes abound with wild rice, which feeds a vast number of water-fowl; it is said to be edible.
The Huimba of Peru—a sort of wild cotton, with a delicate and glossy fibre, like silk, and called in Brazil sumauma—abounds in the province. It grows in balls on a very large tree, which is nearly leafless; it is so light and delicate that it would be necessary to strip a number of these large trees to get an arroba of it. It is used in Guayaquil to stuff mattresses. I brought home several large baskets of it. Some silk manufacturers in France, to whom Mr. Clay, our chargé d'affaires at Lima, sent specimens, thought that, mixed with silk, it would make a cheap and pretty fabric; but they had not a sufficient quantity to test it. Where cotton is cultivated in the province, it is sown in August, and commences to give in May; the bulk and best of the harvest is in June and July. The tree will give good cotton for three years.
Tobacco, of which that cultivated at Borba, on the Madeira, is the best in Brazil, is planted in beds during the month of February. When the plants are about half a foot high, which is in all the month of April, they are set out; the force of the crop is in September. The plant averages four feet in height. Good Borba tobacco is worth in Barra seven dollars the arroba, of thirty two pounds; it does not keep well, and therefore the price in Pará varies much.
The tree that gives the Brazil nut is not more than two or three feet in diameter, but very tall; the nuts, in number about twenty, are enclosed in a very hard, round shell, of about six inches in diameter. The crop is gathered in May and June. It is quite a dangerous operation to collect it; the nut, fully as large and nearly as heavy as a nine pounder shot, falls from the top of the tree without warning, and would infallibly knock a man's brains out if it struck him on the head.