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Title: Aguaxima
Original Title: Aguaxima
Volume and Page: Vol. 1 (1751), p. 191
Author: Denis Diderot (biography)
Translator: Malcolm Eden [University of London]
Subject terms:
Natural history
Botany
Original Version (ARTFL): Link
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.243
Citation (MLA): Diderot, Denis. "Aguaxima." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Malcolm Eden. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2007. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.243>. Trans. of "Aguaxima," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 1. Paris, 1751.
Citation (Chicago): Diderot, Denis. "Aguaxima." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Malcolm Eden. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.243 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Aguaxima," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1:191 (Paris, 1751).

Aguaxima, a plant growing in Brazil and on the islands of South America. This is all that we are told about it; and I would like to know for whom such descriptions are made. It cannot be for the natives of the countries concerned, who are likely to know more about the aguaxima than is contained in this description, and who do not need to learn that the aguaxima grows in their country. It is as if you said to a Frenchman that the pear tree is a tree that grows in France, in Germany, etc . It is not meant for us either, for what do we care that there is a tree in Brazil named aguaxima , if all we know about it is its name? What is the point of giving the name? It leaves the ignorant just as they were and teaches the rest of us nothing. If all the same I mention this plant here, along with several others that are described just as poorly, then it is out of consideration for certain readers who prefer to find nothing in a dictionary article or even to find something stupid than to find no article at all.