lump as big as a man’s head.  They gather these pods before they open; otherwise it would fly all away.  It opens as well after it is gathered; and then they take out the cotton and preserve it to fill pillows and bolsters, for which use it is very much esteemed:  but it is fit for nothing else, being so short that it cannot be spun.  It is of a tawny colour; and the seeds are black, very round, and as big as a white pea.  The other sort is ripe in March or April.  The fruit or pod is like a large apple and very round.  The outside shell is as thick as the top of one’s finger.  Within this there is a very thin whitish bag or skin which encloses the cotton.  When the cotton-apple is ripe the outer thick green shell splits itself into 5 equal parts from stem to tail and drops off, leaving the cotton hanging upon the stem, only pent up in its fine bag.  A day or two afterwards the cotton swells by the heat of the sun, breaks the bag and bursts out, as big as a man’s head:  and then as the wind blows it is by degrees driven away, a little at a time, out of the bag that still hangs upon the stem, and is scattered about the fields; the bag soon following the cotton, and the stem the bag.  Here is also a little of the right West India cotton-shrub:  but none of the cotton is exported, nor do they make much cloth of it.

The Brazilian fruits, oranges, etc.

This country produces great variety of fine fruits, as very good oranges of 3 or 4 sorts (especially one sort of china oranges) limes in abundance, pomegranates, pomecitrons, plantains, bananas, right coconuts, guavas, coco-plums (called here munsheroos) wild grapes, such as I have described, beside such grapes as grow in Europe.  Here are also hog-plums, custard-apples, soursops, cashews, papaws (called here mamoons) jennipahs (called here jennipapahs) manchineel-apples and mangoes.  Mangoes are yet but rare here:  I saw none of them but in the Jesuits’ garden, which has a great many fine fruits, and some cinnamon-trees.  These, both of them, were first brought from the East Indies, and they thrive here very well:  so do pumplemouses, brought also from thence; and both china and seville oranges are here very plentiful as well as good.

Of the soursops, cashews and jennipahs.

The soursop (as we call it) is a large fruit as big as a man’s head, of a long or oval shape, and of a green colour; but one side is yellowish when ripe.  The outside rind or coat is pretty thick, and very rough, with small sharp knobs; the inside is full of spongy pulp, within which also are many black seeds or kernels, in shape and bigness like a pumpkin-seed.  The pulp is very juicy, of a pleasant taste, and wholesome.  You suck the juice out of the pulp, and so spit it out.  The tree or shrub that bears this fruit grows about 10 or 12 foot high, with a small short body; the branches growing pretty straight up; for I did never see any of them spread abroad.  The twigs are slender and tough; and so is the stem of the fruit.  This fruit grows also both in the East and West Indies.