32 HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. ap^smart 



and beaten to a pulp, which is thrown iato a large tub of clean water. The whole is 

 then well stirred, and tlic fibrous part wrung out by the hands and thrown away. The 

 milky liquor being passed tlirough a hair-sieve, or coarse cloth, is left to settle, when 

 the water is drai;ied off, leaving a white mass, wiiich is again mixed with clean water 

 and drained ; the mass is then spread out and dried in the sun, and becomes a pure 

 white flour, v/hich will answer all the purposes of starch. Boiled with miik and water, 

 it is a most nourishing and extremely palateabie food, which m^ay be retained by the 

 weakest stomach. It is, for many domestic purposes, preferable to the best wheaten 

 flour, especially in making puddings. 



Dr. Wright says a decoction of the fresh roots makes an excellent ptisan in acute 

 diseases. Its juice is also said to stop a gangrene, if applied in tinae, and tliat with wa- 

 ter it is good against all acrid poisons. The Indians call it touloUt. 



ARSMART. POLYGONUM. 



Cl, 8, OR. 3. Octandria trigynia. Nat. or. Holoraceie. 



Tlie generic name is derived from two Greek words signifying very knotty', on ac- 

 count of the many knots on the stalks. 



Gen. CHAR. ^There is no calyx ; tiie corolla is five-parted and calycine, or serving 

 iustead of a calyx ; the stamens eight short filaments, .\\ ith roundish incumbent an- 

 thers; germen triquetrous, st3'ies short, stigmas simple ; there is no pericarpium, 

 but the corolla remains, and surrounds the seed, which is single, triquetrous, and 

 acute. There are many species, three of wiiich grow in this island, tiie following, 

 . and the scandeiis, coimnonly called buck- wheat 



1. PERSIC ARIA. 



'Perskaria urem; she hydropipev. Sloane, v. 1, p. 140. Glabrunty 

 Jiorihus hexandris, afj/l/s hifidis, vas'inis siil)mittifi.<i. Browne, 212. 

 Flowers hexandrous semidigynous, spikes ovate oblong erect, peduncles even, 

 stipules ciliate 



This grows very commonly on the muddy banks of (he Rio Cobre, and sends out 

 from every joint, touching the water or mud, a grert mauy fibrils. Tiie stalk is round, 

 jointed at every incli and a half, each joint incUning a little downwards, and about two 

 feet long. At every joint there is a protuberance, and at it upwards is a half-inch long 

 membrane covering the stalk. The leaves come out at each joint akernatively, on 

 inch-long footstalks, they are eight inches long and two broad where broadest, smooth, 

 and in every thing like English arsmart leaves. The flowers stand on the tops of the 

 branches, spike-lhshioned, like in colour to the ordinar}- persicarias, and to them fol- 

 lows a black, fiat, roundish, shining, smooth, seed, having two small prickles or points 

 at eacii end. It grows bv river sides and in moist grounds all over the island, and comes 

 very near, if not altogether the same, as our common Eun^pean persicaria. Sloane, 

 alter gi\ iiig the foregoing description, cites various aiUhorilies for the following virtues 

 which this vegetable is reputed to possess: A fomentation of the leaves tjikes away old 

 aches and colds of the joints. It is a good caustic, and used in putrid and wormy ulcers 

 for that cause. It takes away hardened tumours, and dissolves congealed blood. The 

 Juice kills worms in the ear. Boiled in water, and applied, it carries away bad humours 



fiona 



