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nut into drinking bowls, the kernel of the nut affords 

 them a wholfome food, and the milk contained in the 

 flicll a cooling liquor. The leaves of the trees are 

 ufed for thatching their houfes, and are alfo wrought 

 into bafkets, and moft other things which are made of 

 Ofiers in Europe. 



This tree is propagated by planting of the nuts, which 

 in fix weeks or two months after planting will come 

 up, provided they are frefh and thoroughly ripe, 

 which is what few of them are which are brought to 

 England ; for they always gather them before they 

 are ripe, that they may keep during their paflage •, fo 

 . that the beft way to bring nuts into England for 

 planting, would be to take fuch of them as are fully 

 ripe, and put them in dry fand in a tub, where the 

 vermin may not come to them ; and thefe will often 

 fprout in their paflage, which will be an advantage, 

 bccaufe then they may be immediately planted into 

 pots of earth, and plunged into the bark-bed. 

 Thefe plants, in the hot iQands of America, make 

 ;. confidcrable progrefs in their growth, in which places 

 crcarcfome trees of very great magnitude; but in 

 urope it is of much flower growth, being many years 

 '. : before it advances to any confiderable height ; but as 

 the young leaves of this plant are pretty large, they 

 - , make a good appearance amongfl: other tender exotic 

 . plants in two or three years time. This plant Is pre- 

 fcrvcd in fome curious gardens in England for variety, 

 ., where it mufl: be placed in the bark-fl;ove, and ma- 

 naged as hath been direftcd for the other kind of 

 .Palm; obferving, as often as they iare tranfplanted, 

 not to cut their urong foots, which is generally death 

 : to moft: of the Palm kind.- Thefe plants muft not be 

 • v.. too much confined in their roofs, for if they are, they 

 .\\' will make but little progrefs ; therefore, when the 

 v^ young plants have filled the pots with their roots, 

 "they fliould be fliiftcd into tubs of a moderate fize, 

 that their roots may have room to extend ; but thefe 

 \j < tubs niufl: be kept confl:antly plunged into the bark- 

 , bed, otherwife the plants will not thrive. The me- 

 ^thpd of raifing thefe plants from the nuts, when they 

 arc planted before they have fprouted, is fully de- 

 fcribed under the article of raifing exotic feeds ; to 

 which the reader is dcfired to turn, to avoid repetition. 

 The third fort is commonly called Macaw-tree by the 

 inhabitants of the Britifti Iflands in America ; this 

 rifcs to the height of thirty or forty feet. The fl:em 



is. generally larger toward, the top than at bottom ; 

 the, branches {or rather the leaves) are winged ; the 

 fmall leaves or lobes are long and Very broad ; the 

 ftalk and leaves are ftrongly armed with black fpiries 

 of various fizes in every part; the male and. female 

 flowers are on the fame tree, coming out in the lame 

 ilunner as the Cocoa-nut.- The fruit is about the 

 fize of a middling Apple, and is inclofed in a very 

 hard ftielL ' ^r -- -^ :"" 



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r The ^lacaw-tree is very common In the Caribbee 

 .'■*' Iflands, where tKc negroes pierce the tender" fruit, 

 from whence flow^ out a pleafant liquor, of which 

 -^ they are very fond ; 'and the body of the tree afibrds a 

 ".j^ij folid timber, with which they make javelins, arrows, 

 r^^, &c. and is by fome fuppofed to be a fort of Ebony. 

 ^;^ This tree grows very flow, and retjuires to be kept 



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warm in Winter. : •— ^jm-^' 



The fourth fort is commonly called Cabbage-tree in 



,thc Weft:-Indies ; this rifes to a vefy great nelght in 

 the countri«s'^here it grows naturally. Ligon in his 

 Hiftory of Barbadoes fays, there were then fome of 

 thefe growing there, which were more than two hun- 

 dred feet high, and that he was infoi^med they were 

 a hundred years growing to maturity, fo as to pro- 

 duce feeds. The ftalks of thefe trees are feldqm 

 larger than a man's thigh ; they are finoother than 

 thofe of irioft other forts, for the leaves naturally fall 

 off entire from them, and only leave the veftigia or 

 marks where they have grown. Thefe leaves (or 

 branches) are twelve or fourteen feet long -, the fmall 

 leaves or lobes af« about a foot long, and half an inch 

 broad, with feveral longitudinal plaits or furrows end- 

 ing in foft acute points ; thefe are not fo itiff as thofc . 



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of the firft fort^ and are placed aU^rnately. The 

 flowers come out in long laofe bunches below tht; 

 leaves ; thefe branch outmcomany loofe fl:rings, and 

 are near four fcec long, upon which the flowers are 

 thinly placed. The i-malc flowers are fucceeded by 



. fruit about the fize of a Hazel nut, having a yellow- 

 ifli flcin, fitting clofc to the ftrings of the principal 



,foot-ftalk. 



As the inner leaves of this encompafs the future buds 

 more remarkably than moll: of the other fpecies, fo it 

 isdifl:inguilhcd.by this appellation of Cabbage-tree ; 

 for the center flioots, before they are expofed to the 

 air, are white and very tender, like moft other plants 

 which are blanched ; and this is the part which is cut 

 out and eaten by the inhabitants, and is frequently 

 pickled and fent to England by the title of Cabbage ; 



- but whenever thefe flioots are cut out, the plants de- 

 cay, and never after thrive; fo that it defl:roys the 

 plants, .which is the reafon .that few of the trees are 

 nowto be found in any of the iflands near fettlements, 

 and thofe are left for ornament. . ' . . ■. ; . 

 The fifth fort is commonly called Prickly Pole in . 

 Jamaica, where it naturally grows. Thefe trees are ' 



: commonly found in thickets, where a great number 

 of them are clofe together. Their fl;alks are flendcr, 

 feldom more than five or fix inches diameter, but rife 

 to the height of forty feet, and are clofely armed with 

 long thorns., The leaves are placed circularly on the 

 top, (as in moft^ of the fpecies.) Thefe are winged, 



"but the lobes are fliorter and greener than thofe of 

 the other forts, and are clofely armed with thorns. 



^»The flowers come out in the fame manner as thofe of 

 the Cocoa-nut, upon long branching foot-ftalks; 

 they are larger than the largeft gray Peas, flatted at 



..the top, and arc covered with a red flcin- The inha- 

 bitants of Jamaica make rammers and rods for lower- 

 ing of guns, oftheftemsof thefe trees, which are 

 very tough and pliable ; but there Is no ufe made of ' 

 any other part, fo far as I can learn. J / . 

 The fixth fort is called in the Weft-Indies the Oily 

 Palm, and by fome Negroes Oil, for the fruit of this 

 tree was firft carried from Africa to America by the 

 negroes. It grows in great plenty on the coaft of 

 Guinea, and alfo in the Cape de Verd Iflands, but 

 ,was not in any of our American colonics till it was 

 carried there ; but now the trees are in plenty in mofl; 

 of the iflands, where the negroes are careful to propa- 

 gate them._.^_v - > ^;:^^-:;>--:;J^O ^' ' rv: 



'The branches, (or rather the leaves) of this tree, are 



'winged ; the fmall leaves or lobes, are long, narrow, 

 and not fo ftifi^ as moft of the other forts ; the foot- 



--'ftalks of the leaves are broad at their bafe, where they 

 embrace the ftem, diminifliing gradually upward, and 

 are armed with ftr6ng, blunt, yellowifti thorris,'which' 

 are largeft at their bafe. The flowers come out at the 

 top of tjie iiem between the leaves; fome bunches 

 have bnty male flowers, others have female ; thelat- 

 lef are fucceeded by oval berries, bigger than thofc 

 of the largeft Spanifli Olives, but of the fame fliape j . : 



^ thefe grow in very large bunches, and when ripe are 

 of a yellowifti colour. \ : ^ > v > v^^:;^ ";' .. %^ 

 , From the fruit the inhabitants draw an oil, in the farhe 



. 3 way as the oil is drawn from Olives ; from the body 

 of the tree they extrao: a fiquor, which, when ferment- 

 ed, has a vinous^quality, ana will inebriate.- The leaves 

 of the tree are wrought into mats by the negroes, on 



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which they lie, 

 ^^he feventh fort is called Palmetto-tree, or Thatch^ 



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by the inhabitants of Jamaica, where this tree^grows 

 -'upon all the honey-comb rocks^ in great plenty. 

 X It rifes with a flender ftalk. ten or twelve feet high, 

 ^which is naked and fmooth, and af the top garnifli- 

 ..ed with many Tan-fliaped leaves' placed circularly; 

 'thefe have foot-ftalks two or three feet long, which 

 ■ are armed with a few ftjong, green, crooked fpines j 

 the pinnae, or lobes, do all meet in one center, where 

 ■ they join the foot-ftalk, and are joined together a ' ' 

 third part of their length from their bafe ; they are at 

 ^firft clofely folded intp plaits, but afterward fpread : ' ;' 

 out like a fan; .their ends being pliant often hangv :. ..' 



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