li-j HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. Ai..tEW 



an mrtbo. After these follow round berries as big as English pease, smooth, and black 

 \tihen ripe, containing a tiiin greenish pulp, with a great many round flat white seeds, 

 I was surprised to see the Angoia negroes eat it as calahi, or as we do spiiiage, without 

 any prejudice, being so like the deadly night-shade in Europe. Tlie bark of this plant, 

 briused and put into water, intoxicates fish, so tiiat the)- may be easily taken, but doth 

 not kill them. Tue leaves are reckoned cooling, re^tringent, and anodyne ; the juice, 

 being jnit up the alius, eases pain and aljates intiamniation, and it doth so in erj/fipelas, 

 or St. Anthony'^ fire ; but it ought to be cautiously used, being very cooling and re- 

 stringent, and tlierefore too repercussive or repelling. The juice I know to be good in 

 cancerous tumours and inflamniations, and tire dislilled water is good in fevers. The 

 leaves, juice, or oil, applied lo tlie head, is good in frenzies from heat, and for inflam- 

 mations, and fissures or cracks of the nipples of the breast. BaThuin, p. 1 17. 



P 



w'hicii is equally common ni li-urope, and ot a virose heavy smell, and very imicwm. 



quality in cold climates, is void of both m Jamaica, where it is daily used for food, and 

 found by long experience to be both a pleasant and wholesome green. The length of 

 the common lootstalks, and the length and smoothness of the branches, is the only dif- 

 ference between the two plants, if they be not wholly tlui same ; but the European 

 seems to grow more twiggy and luxuriant. Browne. 



This plant is commonly called gooma or goovicr ralalu, and grows very luxuriantly in 

 new ^rounds. It has an agreeable bitter taste, -iind is much esteemed as a greisn, pot- 

 lierb,and purifier of the blood, and is gently aperient. It has no deleterious qualities 

 like the European plant. 



iJee Canker Berry Egg Plant Night-Shades Potatoes Tomatos Tuiikev 



Berries. 



Calalu, Mountain See Pokeweed. 



\LALU, prickly. AMARANTHUS. 



Cl. t.C '..'. 5. Monoecia pentandria. Nat. OR. Miscellan(s. 



Thiso-enerif n^r; jis derived from a Greek word for incorruptible, because the flower 

 being cropped does not soon decay. 



CeN. char. Male cahx a five or three-leaved perianth, upright, coloured, per- 

 manent, leaflets lanceolate-acute ; no corolla but the calyx ; stamens five or three 

 capillary, the length of the calyx ; with oblong versatile anthers : Female flowers 

 in the same raceme with the males ; calyx and corolla as in the male ; the pistil 

 has an ovate germ, tiiree styles, short, subulate ; stigmas simple, permanent ; 

 pericarp an ovate capsule, somewhat compressed, as is the calyx on which it is 

 placed, coloured, and of the same size, three-beaked, one-celled, cut open 

 transversely ; seed single, globular, compressed, large. Three species are na- 

 tives of Jamaica, the following and polygomides or goosefoot. 



I. .SPINOSUS. 



