frequently the only support of life; for although locusts, ants, or a long drought, should entirely destroy maize, pot-herbs, pulse, melons, and fruits; the mandioc alone, surviving under ground, would supply the place of all these things; for when the boughs, and leaves of this tree are, by some means, destroyed, the roots flourish, increase, and remain uninjured. Drought, which destroys other plants, is favourable and salutary to this. But now the resemblance of the name admonishes me to pass from the esculent mandiò, to the woolly mandiyù. THE MANDIYÙ, COTTON. As the mandiò is very serviceable in feeding the Americans, the mandiyù does much towards clothing them. It is produced by shrubs scarce larger than a hazel of our country, with wood and bark like the elder, and clothed with plenty of soft, woolly leaves. Between three small leaves, with which the unripe nuts are surrounded, grow flowers larger than roses, composed of five broad yellow petals, streaked with red: yellow stamens grow in the bottom of the flowers. The blossoms at length become fruit of a green colour, oval-shaped, or rather conical, and when full grown larger than a plum. When ripe it turns black, and separates into three parts, thrusting out white cotton, full of black seeds, resembling pistachio nuts in size and shape. Under the black skin of these seeds is concealed a yellowish white pith, of a sweet taste, very oily, and of much use in allaying cough and difficulty of respiration. The oil expressed from them is said to be efficacious in cases of stone and in cutaneous disorders. Cotton itself, when burnt, will stop the flowing of blood. As the cotton gradually ripens and bursts from its prison, it is not gathered all at once, but collected day by day. In the Guarany towns this is the business of the girls, who walk about the field, and pluck the fruit with a gentle hand, that the shrubs may not be injured. The cotton daily collected is spread on hides in the court-yard of the house, and laid out in the sun to dry. If this be properly attended to, it may either be safely kept for years in a leathern bag, or spun into thread as soon as you like. To extract those seeds from the cotton the women make use of a wooden machine, consisting of a couple of cylinders, the thickness of two fingers, into which they insert the cotton, and, twisting it about with their hands, cause the seeds to fall out of themselves; because, as they are thicker than the space between the cylinders, they are squeezed out by them.