Mammones, fruit about the size of a quince, sometimes larger, and when
ripe of a greenish yellow, grow upon the trunk of the tree, and hanging
by short stems, have the appearance of teats, whence they are named.
Their pulp resembles that of melons, in its taste and yellow colour, and
is sometimes eaten raw, or boiled with meat. The tree is of middling
height and thickness, and resembles a walnut, in its dusky bark, and a
fig-tree, in its large, angular leaves. Its weak wood swells with a
milky, insipid liquor, which is an additional reason for the name of
_mammones_ being given it. This tree bears flowers, and fruit, at all
seasons of the year, but is so much exhausted by this exceeding
fertility that it scarce ever lasts above four years. When fresh planted
it bears fruit the first year. There are two species of this tree,
whereof the one is called the male, the other the female. In some
respects they differ, but it is not true that one would be barren
without the other. Mammones, though abundant in Brazil, and other parts
of America, are very rare in Paraguay, and scarce ever seen there except
in gardens.