iii nORTUS JAMAICENSIS. M^^cnIO^FAll 



trees. The leaves and younger branches of both are full of a yeliow milky juice, 

 piilp of the fruit is niilky wiien ripe, an J turus yellowish like a carrot, to which it 



The 



has a 

 resemblance in taste and substance, when nut sutKciently mellowed. It generally con- 

 , tains three or four rugijed, oblong, .seeds. The gum of this tree is generally used by 

 the negroes for extracting chigoes froni their feet, fur on being applied to the part it 

 draws them out biig and all. Melted down with a little lime-juice, and dropped into 

 .r.ores, it is eifecti'.al in destraying maggots at the first diessmg. A bath ot th; bark 

 Ijardcna the soies of the I'eet like thie mangrove bark. 



Manatee Grass .SVe Tuutl'E Grass. 



MANCHIONEAL-TREE. HIPPOMANE, 



Cl. 21, OR. 8. Monoccia monaddphia. Nat. OR. Tricocca, 

 .Gen. char. See Gum-Tree, p. 361. 



MANCHINELLA. M.\NCHiOXEAL. 



IiighnnU affinis arbor juUfcra, lactcsccns, venenata, pyrifoVa, maT\^ 

 canillo ilispanis dicta. Sloane, v. 2, p. 3, t. 159. Arbore-um htc- 

 tesccns, ramulis ternatis, petiolis glandula notatis ; fioribus spicatis, 

 7nutis. Browne, p. 351. 

 Leaves ovate, serrate, biglandular at the base. 

 This is a large tree, with a gray, even, thick, milky, baric, and a hard wood, which 

 is yellowish, with gray or blackish veins. Leaves rounded at the base, acuminate, cre- 

 nate, two inches in diameter, thickish, dark green, shining, paler underneath, milky 

 nerved ; on petioles from twelve to fifteen lines in length, margined. Flowers iit 

 aments or spikes : a -lents clustered, terminating, from one to two inches in length ; 

 males several, fen.aics few, distinct, inserted at the base, or quite distinct from the 

 males, and lateral. Male flowers three or four in an ament ; common perianth one- 

 leafed, blunt ; proper two -parted, -turbinate, with blunt minute teeth. Filaments -one, 

 two, three, or four, connate at the base, longer than the caiy.x ; anthers roundish, 

 twin. Fenwiles, perianth trifid, minute, caducous; style none ; stigmas three, two- 

 parted, acute, reflex. Fruit a drupe, the colour, size, and form, of an apple, smooth, 

 with a soft spongy flesh, a sweet smell, and an insipid caustic taste. Within is a nut 

 v/ith from three to five cells, with a single seed in each, which is three-cornered, co- 

 vered witli a shining silvery skin, and having the taste of a hazel nut. S-u>. It is a na- 

 tive of Jamaica. 



The wood makes very handsome furniture, resembling in appearance the English 

 oak or wainscot ; but takes a fine polish. The hewers usually make a fire round the 

 root, and burn .some depth into the trunk, before they venture to cut it. The fire is 

 suffered to prey upon it till very litde remains to be done by the axe. The sawyers and 

 carpenters, who work it up, generally cover their mouths and n,o->trils with crape, in 

 ortfer to exclude the finer particles from getting down their throats. Upon enquiry 

 among the negroes, I could not learn that they suffered any inconvenience from drops 

 cf the juice, which were accidentally spurted upon their skin, whilst they were em- 

 ployed 



