A considerable portion of the land in the neighbourhood of the river was most excellent, consisting of rich meadow plains.

The general proportion of good country compared with the bad was still however but small.
GOUTY-STEMMED TREES.
There was a very remarkable feature in the appearance of this part of the country, caused by the number of gouty stemmed trees (a species of Capparis ?) These trees grow to a considerable height, and had the appearance of suffering from some disease, but, from the circumstance of all of them being affected in the same way, this was undoubtedly their natural state.

I measured one of the largest I here saw, and found that at eighteen inches above the ground its circumference was about twenty-eight feet six inches.
The foliage of this tree was slight but graceful, and it was loaded with a fruit of an elliptical form, as large as a coconut.

This fruit was enclosed in a rind, closely resembling that of the almond, and inside the rind was a shell containing a soft white pulp, in which were placed a species of almond, very palatable to the taste, and arranged in this pulp much in the manner in which the seeds are placed in the pomegranate.

Upon the bark of these trees being cut they yielded in small quantities a nutritious white gum, which both in taste and appearance resembles macaroni; and upon this bark being soaked in hot water an agreeable mucilaginous drink was produced.
This tree is, from this combination of useful qualities, a vegetable production of no slight value, and probably comes near the cocoa-nut tree in value.