,VACH H CRT US JAMAICENSIS. . ^3 



Gcrrtnor says that thi3 tree is not easily distinguished from the bread-fruit, which is ' 

 a great niistal<c, for no t'.vo trees can be more unlike each other in their general ap- 

 pearance. One lobe of a bread-fruit leaf, of which H coiitarns ten or twelve, is much 

 larger than a wliole leaf ot the jaack-fruit ; and the folir.ge of the former is light green, 

 wiitie that of tne latter is a very dark green, colour. The pa-ts of fructification in 

 botii are very similar, but the fruit itself has- no resembhincc in nape ; tlu- bread-fruit 

 being almost circular, the jaack an irregular, crooked, oval, figare; both fruits are 

 warted all over their surfaces. The bread-froit has no smell,- the jaack a very strong 

 aaa dibu-^rccable ooew . 



See Brf.ad-Fkuit. 



JACK iiT'THE BOX. . HERNANDrA, ' 



Cl.21, or. 3. Monot'cia triandria. 'Nat. or. T)icocc<Pi 



This was named in honour of Francis Hernandez, author of a History of Mexico. 



GfeN, CHAR. Male calyx a four-leaved, partial, three-flowered, involucre; corolJa 

 six-petaled ; nectary six glands ; stamens three filrtmcatSj with ujiright antiiers. 

 Female calyx an involucre common with the males ; perianth inferior, one-leafed ;- 

 corolla eight-petaled ; nectary four glands j- the pistil has a roundish germ, a fili- 

 form style, and oblique stigma; the pericarp a dry ovate drupe, eight-furrowed, 

 one-celled, inclosed in a very large, inflated, fleshy, coloured, perianth, with the 

 mouth entire; seed a globular nut, slightly depressed. Thfcre are two species, 

 bi*t it is doubtful whether either of them is a native of Jamaica. 



SONORA. WHISTLIN*. 



Arboreafoliis fordato-peltatis, capsula temci aperta. Browne^'p. 375.- 



Brbwne sawthis tree m Barbadoes- and Montserrat, but not in Jamaica ; but adds 

 that he was crediblv informed it grew in the parish of Portland.- The sonora, or com- 

 mon jack in a box, is a native of both the intlies. It grows twenty or thirty feet high ; 

 and is garnished with broad peltated leaves, and monoecious flowers, succeeded b}' a 

 large swollen hollow fruit, formed of the c:.iyx ; having a hole or open at the end, 

 and a hard nut within. The wind blowing into tJie cavity of this fruit makes a very - 

 whistling and rattling noise, whence comi;s the name. 



The sonora, in Java, affords a sure antidote against poison, if you either put its 

 small roots on tlie wounds or eat them ; as was discovered to Rnmphius by a captive 

 woman, in the war between the people of Macassar an i the Dutch, in the year 1667. 

 The soldiers of the former always carry this root about them, as a remedy against 

 wounds with poisonuus arrows, . 



This tree is common in the Windward Isles, and is said to be frequent in the woods 

 of Portland parisfi. The cups that sustain the nuts arc large, and t!;e wind, biowincr 

 into the cavity, causes a sonorous whistling noise, very often alarming to travellers.^ 

 The seeds are very full of oil, and may be applicable probably to a variety of necessary 

 gjirposes, 



imn. US' -THfe h-vsn-^See Wju>- Sage, 



,2^ 



