6$ IIORTUS JAMA ICF.N SIS. IfMENTA 



glutinous, is difficult to cure 3 and, when dry, becomes black an J tasteless. It is im- 

 possible, however, to prevent some of the ripe berries from mixing with ilie rest; but, 

 if the proportion of them be great, the price of the commodity is considerably injured. 



It is gathered by the hand ;* one labourer on the tree, employed in gathering the 

 small branches, will give employment to three below (who are generally women and 

 children) in picking the berries ; and an industrious picker-will fill a hag of seventy 

 pounds a day. It is then spread on a terrace, and exposed to the sun for about seven 

 days, in the course cf which it loses its green colour, and becoi cs of a reddish brown, 

 and when perfectly thy it is fit for market. 



The returns from a piperita walk in a favourable season are prodigious. A single- 

 tree has been known to yield one hundred and fifty pounds of the raw fruit, or otic 

 1 1 tin Ired weight of the dried spice; there being commonly a loss in weight of one- third 

 in curing; but this, like many other of the minor productions, is exceedingly uncer-* 

 tain, and perhaps a very plenteous crop occurs but once in five years. Its annual ex- 

 port from Jamaica 'he only one of our colonies which produces pimenta] is about six 

 thousand bags of one hundred and twelve pounds each. Edwards. 



Some of these trees are observed to bear no fruit, which has led several persons ta- 

 conjecture that there are male and female trees; but Dr. Browne refutes this notion ; 

 asserts they are hermaphroditical, and supposes, that if those called males were lopped 

 ami broken like the rest, for one or two ) ears, they would produce equally well.f 



As there is so great an af&nity between this and the true clave, it has been proposed 

 SS worthy of trial, if the fruit, When first formed, or the flowers picked off the tree, 

 and dried, might not answer the same purpose as the Asiatic ; at least it might answer 

 as a good succedaneam for that s;>icc, and deserves the experiment, as being the 

 growth of our own colony. 



A walk once formed is attended with little or no labour, or ore, till the time of 



gathering, and this is performed with vcrv few hands ; nor is tl : la id useless for other 

 purposes; for under the trees is genei I pasturage foi cattle, horses, or sheep. 



The more odoriferous and smaller the berries arej the better * ounted at 



market. The leaves and bark are fid 1 of aromatic inflamma I i cles, for which 



reason the growers are extremely cautious not' to'suffer any fire to be made near the 

 walks. 



Pimenta is deservedly esteemed the most temperate, mild, and nocent, of all the- 

 cotnmon spices, and fit to come into more general u>f, irfstead i I the eastern com- 

 modities of this kind, which it far surpasses, by promoting di ti in, attenuating 

 UMigh humours, moderatel} warming and fortifying the stOm: tr, i pelling wind, and 

 doing other friendly offices to the bowels'. A*de< i tion ol ,\ , used by way of 



fomentation, has relieved in rheumatic aches and pains of the bom Long. 



Pimenta berries are chiefly imported into Britain from Jamaica j whence the name- 



Jamaka 



Ity tw istincr rift' the small twir containing bunch I !' UH fniit. win b is U beaten off, when 



flic leaves coil a little, t>_\ small sticks. The berries are t!.o:ight sufiicienti; i % '.,,i the seels in tlinn 

 rattle. 



t Browne says he co:ild never observe a distinct male or female t iwef o . j. Swartz assert 1 : it 



i- polygainon ', having barren and fertile ll iwers, eitb) I together or ua ;. v! rm I ;. lat ihe calyx, which 



i- called the fruit, or is inferior, i- present in most of the species, .- to form a distinct 

 geritis, rather performing the office ol a bracte; and that the berry is cunno.jiy oue-seeded, though its&me- 

 ^uues appears to be thri e-sceded. 



