13: 
The Natural Hiftoryof JAMAICA. 
6. Pifo. ; 
a a 
The Sope-Berry, or, The Sope Apple-Tree, 
This Tree rifeth totwenty or thirty Foot high, it has a Stem as thick 
as one’s Thigh, cover’d with an afh-colour’d, fmooth Bark, like that of 
the Fraxtaus ; the Branches are few, rifing ftraight up, and the Twigs are 
thick fet with winged Leaves, which have a middle Rib for the moit 
Part, a Foot long, having an extant Membrane on each Side a tenth 
of an Inch broad, except an empty Space at every Inch and halt’s Di- 
{tance, where the Pinne are fet on, almoft oppofite to one another, 
with an odd one at the End. Each Pinnais four Inches long, and one 
inch and a half broad in the Middle where broade(t, having no Foot- 
{talk, one middle and feveral tranfverfe Ribs, is fmooth, and of a dark 
green Colour. The Flowers come on the Ends of the Branches, which 
are divided intomany fmall Footftalks fpread on every Hand, fuftain- 
ing many white Flowers ina great Bunch, to which follow as many 
brown Berries, or Plumbs as big as Cherries, having little or no Pulp, 
being perfectly fpherical, and made up of a. thin brown Skin, having 
many Veins running thro it, lathering with Water as Sope, and wafh- 
ing Linen, in which (an empty Space being between) lies a round, black 
fhining, hard Stone. 
It grows in all the Low-land or Savanna Woods. 
The outward Skin or Pulp of the Berries wafhes Linen as Sope, but 
burns it in fome Time. 
The Stone is made Ufe of for Buttons, and therefore the Berries are 
gather’d and the Stones fent into Exvrope in great Quantities. 
The Stone makes better Beads to be ufed in Prayers than Ebony. 
Cloaths wafhed with this Fruit are injur’d by it, ic being very fharp ; 
being bruifed and thrown into Rivers it kills the Fifhes, as Timbo, 
The Beads made of this Stone, turn’d, and the bitter Kernel taken 
out, are better than thofe of Jet or Ebony becaufe light, and becaufe they 
never crack; the Sope wafhes Cloaths as well as other Sopes in 
Spain, Xim, Oviedo. 3 
The Powder thrown into a River intoxicates Fifth, NWieremb. 
Three or four of thefe Berries wafh Cloaths better than a Pound of 
Sope, Mon. 
They burn the Cloaths wafh’d with them. Ov. 
An Anonymus Portugal takes Notice of it in Brajile Purchas p. 1309. 
lib. 7. cap. 1. where Beads are made of the Fruit, and Sope, which is as 
bitter as Aloes, 2b. ! 
Sope-Berries wafhing as white as Sope, were found by Smith in his 
Obff. p- 55-1n St. Chriftopher’s, & p.§6. in Barbados, where he fays they 
have a good Kernel, and are eatable. 
Lery tells us of a Fruit like a Citrull, as big as one can carry in 
one Hand, which being cut into Pieces, lathers like Sope, and was us’d 
by the Indians for that End; and Rochefort, of a foft white Root | 
ufed for the fame Purpofe, in the Ifles, ! 
XXVI. Prunifera arbor, fruttu maximo pyriformi-viridi, pericgepio efen- 
lento butyraceo,. nucleum unicum maximum nullo oficulo tectum? ‘cingente. 
Cat, Fam. p.185. Tab. 222. Fig. 2. Raij. Hift. Vol. 3. Dendr. p.48.-Perfea 
Sterbeeck citr, Pp. 259: Plm. pl. Amer. po 44. Arbor Americana’ ampliflfimis 
pergamems folsis, fuperficie nitidiffima, fructu pyriformi, crufiaceo cortice co-- 
riato. Plukenet, Almag. p. 39. phytogr. Tab. 267. Figs.1« feu Cucurbitifera 
) | | arbor 
