The ỹçapỹ, a large tall tree, is covered with leaves like those of the
citron, but smaller, and of a paler green. It is a remarkable
circumstance, that when the air is mild, and always in the night, its
leaves drop a quantity of water, which moistens the space round about
the tree and renders it muddy. The wood of the tree is very soft and
flexible, but not moist, on which account it is well calculated for
making stirrups. John Verkens of Leipzig, in his account of a journey
taken by the Dutch to the East Indies, relates, that in the island of
Ferro, one of the Canaries, they found a very large tree which dropped
water day and night, every part of the year, and that the inhabitants
hung up large pitchers to receive it for their own use, and that of
their cattle; fresh water, he says, being incredibly scarce there. If
this be true, I suspect that it must be the same tree as that which the
Guaranies call ỹçapỹ in Paraguay. They say that this water possesses a
medicinal virtue, but of what kind I do not know.