Frazão, Carlos. Castanha do Brasil. Belém: [s.n.], 1935. 73 p.

The Brazil Nuts ----- One of the most interesting ·products exported exclusively from the ·Amazon is the Brazil nut, known in Brazil as the Castanha do Pará. Analysis shows that it is essentially a fruit food containing 17 per cent. proteins (eggs), 17 to 66 per cent. of fats (cream)-as the kernel ripens the fatty content increases-and 9 1; 2 per cent. carbo– hydrates tfish). It is the fruit of the Bertholletia excelsa, one of the giants of the Amazonian forests which stretch on both sides of the Amazon river, from the eastern coast to the Acre District. Its handsome dome-the "bouquet"-towers above all its con– geners and attains at time a height of 150 feet. The trunk is round and smooth, rising to 100 feet before the first branches are met. The foot of the tree is firmly buttressed round the stem. · The fruit consists of a round pod with a hard shell one-quarter of an inch thick, and about four to five inches in diameter. It contains from sixteen to twenty seeds (nuts) embedded in a soft pulp which, in time, turns into a fibrous mould. Si– multaneously with the ripening of the pod the tree puts forth the flowers of the future fruit, to reach maturity after a pedod of twelve months. The nut itself, when not overcrowded in the pod, is cunetform is shape, with ar.1 oblong white kernel encased in a further shell of considerable strength and is