AM a SF NORRIE cA PERE RS ete. TH 
Ee ea 
The PREFACE, 
Another Ufe of this Hiftory may be, to teach the Inhabitants of the — 
Parts where thefe Plants grow, their feveral Ufes, which I have endea- 
vour'd to do, by the beft Informations I could get from Books, and the 
Inhabitants, either Europeans, Indians or Blacks. Jamaica had been. 
before it was taken by the Englifh, in the poffefion of the Spaniards, 
almoft from the time the Welt-Indies were difcover'd : They had brought 
_ many Fruit-Trees from the Main-Continent, where they are Mafters, 
and fuffer no other Europeans to come ; which throve wonderfully, and 
now grow as it were Sponte : Thefe they made ufe of for Food, Phy- 
fic, 8cc. And were forc'd to leave with their Habitations, to the Englith, 
and the Skill of Ufing them remain'd with the Blacks and Indians, 
many of whom came, upon a Proclamation that they fhould be Free, 
fubmitted peaceably, and liv’'d with the Englifh after the Spaniards 
had deferted it. ‘There were among thefe, feveral which made fmall 
Plantations of their own, wherein they took care to preferve and pro- 
pagate fuch Vegetables as grew in their own Cointries, to ufe them as 
they faw occafion : 1 made fearch after thefe, and what I found, is rea 
lated in this Hiftory. Befides thefe Helps, fome of the Dutch who had 
liv'd in Brafil, came hither, and others of the Dutch and Englifh from 
Surinam,where they had obferwd the Effetts of fome Plants they met with 
in Jamaica, and ufed them for the fame Purpofes they had done in Brafi} 
and Surinam, towards the Relief of the Inhabitants. For this Reafon 
she Reader will find herein, many of the Vertues of Plants to agree with 
the Obfervations of Aitthors, wring of other Parts of the se agai 
There is another Ufe to be , made of this Book, which is this; In read- 
ing Voyages, and talking with Travellers to the nee ere. one 
fhall meet with Words, and Names of Things, one has no Notion or Con- 
ception of : by looking for fuch Names inthe Index of the Catalogue of Ja- 
maica Plants, you are referr d to the Page where you find a Lift of fuch 
as have treated of it; And in this Hiftory under the firft Title of it in the 
catalogue, is the Hi ‘pry of it. If on the other hand, any Perfon defires to 
know who bas written of fuch or fuch a Plant in Jamaica, let him look into 
the Catalogue, and under the firft Title of the Plant, he will find Cita- 
tions to direét him to the Pages of moft of the Books where it is- 
fpoken of \ 
Another | 
