U2 HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. 



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Tliis name k <lerivecl from two Greek words, signifying bread and fniit. 



Gkn. char. There is no cahx to the' male flower, Lho aiueittuin is cylindrical, all 

 covered with ilorcts; the corolla to each two petals, obloiiir,. concave,, hhirit, vil- 

 Icse ; the stan.en is a bingie fiJaBjent v\ilhin eadi corolla, filifona, tiie length of 

 the corolla, ohiong : Tiie female ilouer has no cai\'x nor corolla; the pistil has 

 Tfry many germs, connected into a globe, hexangnlar ; style to each filiform,, 

 stigma single or two, eapiilavy, regime; the perkarpium is an ovate globular 

 fruit, compound, muricate ; seeds for eaA:h g(;ria solitary, oblong, covered wiili, 

 a pulpy aril, placed on an ova4;e receptacle. There are two species the iulegfi-^ 

 Jolia oijaavk tree^ and 



INCISA. ^TOTCHEX)-. 



Leaves gashed. 



This tree grows to the thickness of a man, and forty feet hig-h or more ; -the trunk is- 

 apright, the woTkI soft, s'raooth,. and yellowish, the inner-bark white, composed of a . 

 net of siifiish filtres, the outer bark smooth, but full of chinks, jiale ash colour, with 

 t^mall tubercles thiidy scattered over it. Wherever the tree is wounded it pours out a 

 glutinous milky liquor. The branches form an ample almost globular head ; the lower 

 ones which are the longest, spring from the trunk alternately ten or tv/ehe feet above 

 the ground, spreading out almost horizontally,, scattered and in a sort of whorl ; twigs 

 ascending, hearing flowers and fruits at their ends. Leaves alternate, petioled, ovate,, 

 deeply divided above the middle into seven or nine lanceolate acute lobes,, with nnmded 

 siiuises ; they are otherwise quite entire, ^smooth on both sules, even, spreading, 

 Ijright green,, paler nnderricath, membranaceous, a foot and a half or two feet in length., 

 ten to fourteen inches wide, veined, having a thick nerve to each lobe, diverging from, 

 the common rachi?. The younger leaves, like all the more tender jiarts of the tree, 

 are glutiiious to the touch ; petioles roundish, even, ascending, two inches in length ; 

 stipules in pairs, involving the'younger leaves, lanceolate, acuminate, conc3:\'e, entire, 

 smooth within, hairy on the outside, deciduous, five or six inches long : peduncles at 

 the ends of the twigs, and in the axils of the upper leaves, solitary, round, uprightj. 

 having a few hairs on them, and two inches in length. The male flowers are among 

 the upper leaves, and the female flowers at the ends of the twigs ; tlie male ament i.4 . 

 club-shaped,, fleshy, upright, a span long, covered witli inumerable small, sesslle- 

 fiorets; tlie proper perianth is very small, two-valved, the valves equal, oblong, blunt,, 

 concave, closely adhering, shut, yelhjwish brown ; these have no spathes. The female 

 flowers have bivalve spathes, ovate-lanceolate, compressed, acuminate, upright, bent 

 in at the tip^ soft, a span in leogth, at first closed, then deciduous, placed at the end 

 of the peduncle ; spadix globular, covered with very many connate germs ; these are 

 ob-conica1, immersed in the receptacle, somewhat convex at the top ; styles scarcely 

 any ; stigmas projecting points, v/ithering, in some varieties bifid. The truit is a glo- 

 bular berry, smoothish, marked v/ith hexagons on the surface, pale green, when-: 

 largest, a long span or nine inches in length, filled with a white farinaceous, some- 

 what fibrous, pulp, which, when the fruit is ripe, becomes sweet, juicy, and yellow;, 

 it is fastened to a.club--shaped, fieshy receptacle, which is longitudinally fibrous, and^ 

 a hand in length. 



This valuable plant is a rtative of the South Seas, and upwards of three hundred 

 plants were landed in tliis island, in the year 1793, from his Majesty's ship Providence, 

 Captain William Bligh. These plants were distributed in the most judicious manner, 



under 



