JO HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. se^ 



1. AZEDARACTI. 



Leaves bipinnatc, leaflets flat, shining, with ferruginous dots untlemeatb. 



This is a native of Syria, anil grows to a considerable tree, tlie root is brachiated ; 

 the bark rongh and scabrout^, the stem grows two feet tiiick, and thirty' or forty feet 

 high, very ramose and spreading. The leaves are large and pinnated, with an odd one 

 at tin- end ; the leaflets notched and indented at their edges, deep green ahove and 

 pakn- underneath. The flowers come out from the side of the branches in long loose 

 hunches ; they are small, of a very sweet smell and of a Hueish or purplish colour. 

 Fruit oblong, the size of a small cuerry, green at first, but, when- ripe, clianging to 

 pale yellow. Nut four or five celled, with one oblong seed in each ceil. The pulp 

 surrounding the nut is poisonous, and mixed witli grease it is saicl will kill dogs. The 

 nuts are bored and strung for iieads. A decoction of the inner bark of the root of tiiis 

 tree is said to be used in tlie Eiist Indies to expl the tocnia or tape vrorm, and as a 

 substitute for the Peruvian bark. Worms of every species arc destroyed by this medi- 

 cine. The following account of it, extracted from Dr. Dancer's Medical Assistant, 

 first edition, is by Mr. Hylton, who is justly noticed as a gentleman of great philan- 

 thropy and most diligent enquiry : " The-root has a tliin redaish bark, or outer skin, 

 wliich IS deleterious and must 1 e scraped off" from ttie second, or inner thick white 

 bark : put a hmJful of the shavings ot this white bark in a tjuart of water ; boij over 

 a slow fire to a pmt -, when settled, pour olT and sweeten. Dose, a wine-glass full, 

 three mornings >uccessively ; after which a cathartic (castor oil) is to be administered." 

 The same ingenious gentleinan has very obligingly comnumicated to the compiler what 

 he published in Richmond, in Virginia, in the year 1796, upon the virtues of this 

 plant as an efficacious .ver.nifuge, mn particulars of which he learned from Mr. Judge 

 Iredell, as follow: 



" The /;) f/t" o/CTvna"" (the trivial name of tbemelia's in Carolina, of which from 

 the size of the trees I saw in Edenton, of eighteen to twenty inches diameter, I judr^ed 

 it to be a native) " had been used by an old Indian woman, an ab-origifies of Carolina, 

 as a nostrum for the cure of children on most occasions, wi.h great success, for many 

 vears, without any person being able to discover what it was. As worm.s are generally 

 ^he cause of sickness in children, physicians in Edenton would always refer parents to 

 this old Indian ; and great discharges of worms, of every species, were the conse- 

 quences of the medicine. When she found her dissolution approaching, she sent for 

 some gentlemen of the tovv'n, and told them that the secret her fathers had given to her 

 -should not die with her, informed them of the tree, and the manner it was prepared and 

 given ; since which it is the universal medicine, which has saved thousands of chil- 

 dren." Mr. Hylton adds, that he has given it in an hundred instances in this island 

 and in America, and always with success, and says it is so esteemed in Carolnia as t 

 do awaj' with their native pink-root altogether. 



This tree grows readily from the seeds, and thrives well in Jamaica, 



2. SEMPERVIREN3. EVERGREEN. 



Leaves doubly pinnate ; leaflets somewhat vyrinkled, commonly seven. 



Thi-, form.erly deemed only a \'ariet3-, has been ascertained by Swartz to be a distinct 

 species growing naturally in tliis island. 



BeanTrf.e 9r ChualTrff. 



Beans S<:(i Horse Bean and Kidney Bean. 



BEARDEB 



