426 HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. indigo 



liquor, (an-alawning circumstance, that, as I am informed, both by the French and 

 Ent^lisli planters, constantly attends the process) the failure of the seasons, and the 

 ravages of the worm. These, or some of these evils, drove themat -length to other 

 pursuits, where industry nii2;ht find a surer recompense. 



** Their history, however, I'urnishes a new illustration to a very trite but important 

 remark, that a manufacture, ojice destroyed, scarce ever takes root a[;ain in the same 

 country. Of the causes from which the general culture and manufacture of iiidigo was 

 relinquished in Jamaica, enough has been said by other writers : yet the same argu- 

 ments, whicli induced the British government to burthen this commodity with duties 

 under which it sunk, are still urged in the case of other colonial products, and wi!i.<] 

 continue to be urged, until the same fate attends many of tliem as attended indigo. 

 Of the monstrous follv and imjiohcy of loading with iiigh duties an article so essentially 

 necessary to the British woollen uianufactory, (putting colonial considerations out of 

 the question) the mother country is, I believe, at length sufficiently convinced, the 

 quantity of indigo annually imported into Great Britain, from all parts of the world, 

 bein >, I believe, one million and a.half of pounds, of which five parts, in sevea,- are r 

 j)urchiiscd with ready money from strangers and rivals 1" 



The following is a negro secret, and superior to mercurial ointment, tor destroyirii^ 

 the vermin wliich generally infeit their woolly heads, and without the danger which 

 attends tlie preparations of quicksilver, for that purpose: Half fill a bottle with the 

 clean roots of the indigo, which grows commonly in the pastures, roads^ and hedges, 

 first scraped in the manner of horse-raddish. On these pour so much strontj rum as 

 will cover tlve roots, but not fill the bottle. Let the bottk be close corked, frequently 

 sliaken, and exposed to the sun-shine for some days. This infusion, well rubbed on 

 the bead, tmtil the hair is thoroughly drenched, will as effectually and instantly de- 

 stroy the vermin, as if boiling water had been poured on the part. May not a strong' 

 decoction of the roots, boiled in water, prove efficacious in killing fleas in the fur of 

 dijns and cats the lice in the feathers of domestic poultry and the animalculi that 

 occasion and communicate the mange among sheep, goats, or other animals ? It is 

 said, that in North America the wild indigo bush is stuck iato the horses harness ta > 

 keep off flies.- 



INDTGO BEKRY. GARDENIA. 



Cl. 5, OR. I. Pentandria monog^jnia. Nat. or. Contorts. 



*rhis was named in honour of Alcxanxlcr Garden, M.D. of Gharlestown, in Carolina;. 



Gen. cn.\R. Calyx a one-leafed, five-cleft, superior, perianth ; divisions upright, 

 permanent; corolla one-petaled, funnel-form, contorted, border five-parted,; 

 the stamens have no filaments ; anthers five, inserted into the mouth of the tube, 

 linear, streaked, half the length of the border ; the pistil has an inferior germ, 

 style filiform or club-shapetl, stigma standing out, ovate, obtuse, two-Iobed, 

 often furrowed ; the pericarp a dry berry, one, two, or four, celled; seeds very 

 man y, flatted, imbricate in rows. Two species are natives of Jamaica. 



1. ACULEATA^ 



