170 HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. ceundine 



Flowers panicled. 

 This tree rises with a straight stem to the height of seventy or eighty feet, and fre- 

 quently found from tiiree to five teet in thanieter. While young the bark is smootli 

 and of an ash colour, but as it advances the bark becomes rough and of a darker coloiw, 

 liaving longituilinal tissures. Towanls the top it shoots out many side brunches, gar- 

 nished with alternate winged leaves, composed of from eight to fifteen pairs of opposite 

 leaflets, so that they are trom eighteen inches to two feet and a half in length ; the 

 leaflets are broad at their base, ending in a narrow point,, and from three to five inches 

 long. The peduncle is round, swelling into a knot, and somewhat clavated at the 

 base; pedicels round, opposite. The flowers on a very J)ranching raceme, panicled; 

 corollas whitish, flesh colour. The fruit is a capsule, continued frum a woody peduncle, 

 and woody itself, brown, with irregular pale spots, appearing as it were leprous, within 

 of a reddish bay colour, the valves opening from the top, but permanent at the base, 

 and not falling. The top seeds are elliptic, the middle ones oblong-ovate, tlie lower 

 ones ovate-lanceolate, all ferruginous, cinnamon colour, .with, a nucleus at top, and 

 termmating below in a membranaceous wing. This tree is very common in man}- parts 

 of Jamaica. When the branches or leaves ai-e broken off" this tree, or the body chop- 

 ped, it has a strong and disugreeable smell, which spreads to a considerable distance, 

 but when the wood is dry it emits an agreeable fragrance. It is very full of a dark re- 

 sinous substance, light, porous, of a brownish red colour, and, easily,. worked; it is 

 much esteemed oa this account, as well as the beauty-of its grain, for wainscotting, 

 and other cabinet ware. It is also excellent for mailing chests, or the inside of drawers, 



. as no vermin will invade it, on account of its strong scent. It makes also excellent 

 planks and shingles, which are very durable, having been known, to last full: thirty 

 years, when exposed to the weather, as shingles, and the durability of the wood is no 



.less a recommendatioR than its lightness for this purpose. It is not fit to be made 



.into casks, as allspirituous liquors dissolvea great quantity of its resin, from.which they 

 acquire a strong bitter taste. The trunks of the trees are often so lar^e as to be hoU 

 lowed out into canoes and periaguas, forwhich purpose it is extremely well adapted, 



.as, from the softness of the wood, it.is holloijed out with great facility, and, being 

 light, it carries great weight on the water. Canoes have been made of it forty feet long 

 and si.v broad. It is a cui'ious circumstance, but well known, that if a pigeon house be 

 floored with this wood, the pigeons will not hatch ; and, it is said, that when parrots 

 feed on its fruit they taste of garlic ; it also gives victuals laid on it a bitter taste. A 



, clear transparent gum, ;like gum arable, exudes from this tree in. considerable quHBti- 



ties, on its beiijg .wounded, which dissolves in, water,, and fias been found very fit for 



shoemakers use. Tiiis tree is easily propagated from seeds, and is of quick growth. 



Ji occasionally sheds all its leaves, but, it would seem, at no regular periodjj, as some 



^^f the trees are ii^ full foliage while otlxers are bare. 



.Cedar, Bermudas ^ee Bermudas. 

 :Ceiba S'fe Cotton Tree. 



CELANDINE or PARROT WEED. ^BOeCONIA. 



^L. llf OR. i. Dodecandrla vianogynia, ."Nat. OR. Tihodaccx, 



