The fruit is nearly orbicular, and about 6 inches in diameter, and has a
hard shell about half an inch thick, which contains from 18 to 24
triangular, wrinkled seeds that are so beautifully packed within the shell
that when once disturbed it is impossible to replace them. When these
fruits are ripe, they fall from the tree and are collected into heaps by
troops of Indians called _Castanhieros_, who visit the forests at the
proper season of the year expressly for this purpose. They are then split
open with an ax, and the seeds (the Brazil nuts of commerce) taken out and
packed in baskets for transportation to Para in the native canoes. The
"meat" that the Brazil nut contains consists of a white substance of the
same nature as that of the common almond, and which is good to eat when
fresh, but which, by reason of its very oily nature, soon gets rancid.
Besides its use as an article of dessert, a bland oil, used by watchmakers
and artists, is obtained from the nut by pressure. Brazil nuts form a
considerable article of export from the port of Para, whence they are
sometimes called Para nuts.

The Brazil nut tree remained for a long time unknown to European botanists,
although the fruit has been from a very remote epoch consumed in large
quantities in certain southern countries of the New World. The first
description of the tree we owe to Humboldt and Bonpland, who established
the genus and species in the botanical part of the account of their voyage.
The genus is dedicated to the illustrious Berthollet.

"We were very fortunate," say these authors, "to find some of these nuts in
our travels on the Orinoco. For three months we had been living on nothing
but poor chocolate and rice cooked in water, always without butter, and
often without salt, when we procured a large quantity of the fresh fruits
of the _Bertholletia_. It was along in June, and the natives had just
gathered them."