310 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



pure, clear, and wholesome. It is said the natives never drink 

 well-water if they can get pond or river water, which they 

 treat in the way indicated. These seeds have much the ac- 

 tion of alum, but are believed to be less injurious, and are very 

 easily obtained any where in India. The fruit, when green, 

 is made into preserves and eaten ; but when ripe, and given 

 in powder, answers the purpose of an emetic, a dose being 

 about half a tea-spoonful. According to Dr. Pereira, the pe- 

 culiar property of these seeds depends on the presence of al- 

 bumen and caseine, which act as purifying agents, like those 

 employed for wine or beer. If the seeds be sliced and di- 

 gested in water, a thick mucilaginous liquid is obtained, which, 

 when boiled, yields a coagulum. A similar application is 

 made elsewhere of other kinds of seeds. Thus the inhabit- 

 ants of Cairo render the muddy water of the Nile quite clear 

 by rubbing bitter almonds, prepared in a particular manner, 

 on the inside of the earthen jar in which the water is kept. 

 14A,Jidy 9 18ll,43. 



CINCHONA IN JAMAICA. 



In the monthly report of the Department of Agriculture 

 for March and April of the present year we find a valuable 

 paper upon the cultivation of the cinchona in Jamaica, by Dr. 

 C. C. Parry, the botanist of the Department, who accompanied 

 the San Domingo investigating committee, and in returning 

 spent some time in Jamaica. As the general result of his in- 

 quiries in regard to the cultivation of this plant, and the pos- 

 sibility of introducing it into any portion of the United States, 

 he states, first, that the peculiar conditions of soil and climate 

 suitable for the growth of the best varieties of cinchona plants 

 can not be found within the present limits of the United States, 

 where no suitable elevations possessing an equable, moist, cool 

 climate, free from frost, can be met with ; second, that the isl- 

 and of San Domingo, located within the tropics, and traversed 

 by extensive mountain ranges attaining elevations of over six 

 thousand feet above the sea, presents a larger scope of coun- 

 try especially adapted to the growth of cinchonas than any 

 other insular region in the western hemisphere ; third, that 

 the existence of successful cinchona plantations in Jamaica, 

 within two days' sail from San Domingo, would afford the 

 material for stocking new plantations in the latter island at 



