I 
The Natural Hiffory of Jamaica. 207 
brown, and contains, when opened, a great many flat, round, thin, brown 
Seeds, with much Silk Cotton fticking to their ends, in which they lie, 
fattencd to a middle, white, foft membrane, dividing cach Pod. Ali the 
parts of this Plant are very milky. | | 
Jt grows very plentifully in the Road between Paffage-Fort and the Town, 
as alfo in moft Ditches and Paftures about the Town. nh 
It is very troublefome to Planters, fowling their Paftures, and {preading 
its felf therein much againft their will, and to their damage by means of 
its winged Seed. 
The Figure of this in Dr. Herman’s Paradifus Batavus is not very good. 
. XVII Apocynum fruticofum feandens, genifte Fifpanica facie, floribus ladteis 
edoratis. Cat. p.89. Tab.13%. Fig. 1. : 
_ . This has near its Root a Stem as big as ones little Finger, covered with an 
afh-coloured Bark, having fome {uperficial black Suc in it. The Stalk is 
divided into very many round, green Branches, like to Spani/h Broom, which 
turning round Trees, or leaning on any thing they come hear, rife to 
fometimes thirty Foot high. At every two or three Inches diftance to- 
wards the top, it has two fmdll two Inches long Twigs fet oppofite one 
to the other at a little joint, each of which has Leaves fet likewife oppo- 
“fice one to the other, ftanding on an eighth part of an Tach long Foot- 
Stalks, being Oval an Inch long, half as broad, a little hairy or like velvet, 
and of a GrafS green colour. Six or eight Flowers ftand at cop umbell-fafhion 
to gether, their Inch long Foot-Stalks coming from the ends of the Twigs, 
asfromacommon Center. They are eachof them pentapetalous, the edges 
“of the Petala being hairy, the Stamina are five, ftanding up in the middle, 
~ Whofe round ends are reflected inwards, all of a milk white colour, {melling 
_ fweer, and looking very pleafantly. The Seeds are many, brown and flar, 
dying in a filk down like other the Apocynums, all of them being lodged in 
an Inch long pyramidal Sheath, Pod, or Capfwa, which opens on one fide, let- 
ting che Seeds fly out: two of thefe Pods being ufually fet oppofite like 
Horns, as the others of this Kind. 
The whole Plant is very milky. 
It grows on fome Palifadoes about the Town of St. Fago de la Vega, and 
on the Trees of the fandy Banks of the Rio Cobre below the ‘Town, on the 
~ fame fide of the River. | , 
. It is very plain, by this Defcription and Figure, that this cannot be the 
~ Apocynum fcandens angufto rorifmarini folio, ec. Plukenet. Alm. p. 37. Phyt. 
Tab.r61. Fig.2. The Doctor, p.17. of his Mantiffa doubts if it may not 
be the fame. 
_ XVIIN. Apocynum foandens majus folio fubrotund, Cat.p.89. Tab. 131. Fig. 
2. An Apocynum foandens Malabaricum fruticofum floribus nerii Cariophylles 
redolentibus. Herm. par. Bat. p. 62? | PUNE tpl oe 
‘This hasa round, dark brown, and deep Root, fending’ out one or more 
round. and green Stalks, which wind and turn themfelves about any Plant 
or Shrub they come near, rifing to fix Foot high, and at about each three 
or four Inches diftance ate joints, out of which come Leaves, and fome- 
- times Branches fet one againft another. The Leaves have a quarter of an 
~ Inch long Foor-Stalk, are almoft round, two Inches Diameter, a little curled, 
of a very frefh green colour and finooth. Between therm and the Stalk, ex 
alis foliorum, comes a half Inch long Foot-Stalk, fuftaining a grear many 
pentapetalous Flowers, each Flower ftanding in a contorted, greenifh Calyx, 
which is long, its ore beitig divided into five parts. Thete is between each 
~ of the Petala or. Sections, a {mall diftance, they ftanding f{parfe from 
one 
