56 HOItTUS JAMAICENSIft *eppe 



|pot-_staIk*s end ; they are many, joined together, and of a greenish colour. The 

 seeds are broad like parsnip-seed. The plant is sharp to the taste, and has been taken 

 by some planters for scurvy r grass ; the whole plant is of hot and subtle parts, pleasant 

 an I aromatic to the taste : They open obstructions of the liver and reins, for which no 

 remedy is more proper; the juice of the green leaves i-- a famous antidote against 

 poison ; and the native Brasilians procure vomiting with it. It is used to take away the 

 spots which the Portuguese call os jigados, which are liver-spots ; and it is said to kill 

 sheep, if they feed upon it."" 



2. ASIATiCA. ASIATIC. 



Ilumilior, foliis semi-elliptic is crenatis, scapo florfero partiali breei 

 7iuao. Browne, p. 185. 



Leaves kidney-form, tooth-letted. 



Browne says this is found in the mountains between Sixteen-Mile- Walk and St. 

 Mary's, and calls it mountain pennyworth. 1 he leaves have toothlets or notches equal 

 round them ; they are of a tLick suostance, and somewhat hoary, several together at 

 each joint of the stalk 



PEPPER-ELDER. PIPER. 



Cl. 2, or. 3 Diandria trigynia. Nat. or. Piperita. 



'Gen. char. See Colt's-Foot, p. 228. Of this twenty-five species have been disco- 

 vered in Jamaica ; besides those described under the name colt's-foot. 



1. AMALAGO. 



Piper lengum arborcum aitius, folio nervoso minore, spica graiiliori 

 et brevwri. Sloane, v. l, p. 1 3 !, t. 37, f. l. Friitescens aifflisum 

 ramis fiexUihus geniculate, foliis ovatis quinque nerviis, ad peliolum 

 leniter revolutis. Browne, p. 121. 

 Leaves cordate, commonly seven-nerved, veined. 



This is a shrub from three to ten feet in height ; stem even ; branches dichotomoujs, 

 "jointed, sub-divided, round, brownish-green ; leaves alternate, acuminate, not oblique, 

 jierved and veined, very thin, bright green, smooth, paler underneath ; petioles 

 round, smooth. Joints swelling ; spikes peduncled, opposite to the leaves, filiform, 

 loose, many- flowered. Flowers clustered; no calyx, corolla, or filament; anthers 

 from two to four, at the base of the germ, cordate-ovate, sessile, two-celled; germ 

 ovate; style none; stigmas three, oblong sessile; berry sessile, containing a single 

 seed, double the size of hemp-seed, black when ripe, of a taste slightly pungent. Sw. 

 It generally shoots out several stems, rising fifteen feet high, with crooked branches ; 

 both stem and stalks are hollow and pithy. The leaves are rough, about three inches 

 .long, and one and a half broad. The spikes are at the ends of the branches, slender, 

 three inches long. 



This plant grows very common in most of the hilly parts of the island, and looks very 

 bushy and spreading, on account of its slender llesile branches. It begins to divide 



very 



