RMS^PARifcUr HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. i4i 



for masts of ships, being preferable to any fir trees. I had once a green balsam pre- 

 sented to me, brought from the Spaniards, of a very fine green, clear, and pleasant 

 smell, which they said was the finest balsam in the world for green wounds, but could 

 not tell me from what tree it came. Some time after, a negro brought me of the same 

 sort of balsam, both in cobur and smell, which he got from one ol these trs, and I 

 found it to be an excellent balsam ; for, melt it and pour it into a green or fresh incised 

 wound, and it would heal up in once or twice dressing. This balsam the Spaniards, 

 while it is new and fr-esjh, put into the hollow joints of trumpet-wood, calling it the 

 admirable preen balsam, but conceal its name, and the tree it comes from ; yet it is for 

 some extraordinary use that they call this tree Santa Maria, which makes me think it. 

 is for its baUam. Bar ham, p. 18. 



SaNTuI.WA SVfllAl.BERT-WF.ED - . 



Sapota See Mammee-Sapota. 

 Sappadilla See Nasf,berry. 



SARSAPARILLA. SMILAX. 



Cl."22, or. 6. Dioecia hexandria. NaT. OR. Sarmeniaccf.- 

 &a. char. See Ciuna^Root, p. ISO. 



sarsaparilla. 

 Stem prickly, angular; leaves unarmed, ovate, retuse-mucronate, three- 

 nerved. 



This has the root perennial, branchy, externally brown, internally white; stems of 

 the thickness of a man's finger; they are jointed, triangular, and beset with crooked 

 spines The leaves are alternate, smooth, and shining on the upper side; on the 

 other side are three nerves or costs', with sundry small crooked spines. The flower 1; 

 yellow mixed with red. The fruit isa black berry, containing several brown seeds. 

 * Sarsaparilia delights in low moist grounds and near the banks of rivers. In such 

 places it thrives well in Jamaica. The roots run superficially under the surface of the 

 ground. 7'h- gatherers have only to loosen the soil a little, and to draw out the long 

 fibres with a veooden hook. In this manner they proceed till the whole root is got out, 

 It is then cleared of the mud, dried, and made into bundles. 



The sensible qualities of sarsaparilia are mucilaginous and farinaceous, with a slight 

 degree of acrimony. The latter, however, is so slight as not to be perceived by many ; 

 and I-am apt to believe its medicinal powers may fairly be ascribed to its demulcent and 

 farinaceous qualities, u. 



Since the publication of Sir William Fordvce's paper on sarsaparilia in the Medical 

 Observations and Enquiries, vol. I. sarsaparilia has been in more general use than for- 

 merly. The planters in Jamaica supply their estates with great quanties of it ; and its 

 exhibition has been attended with very happy consequences in the yaws and in venerea! 

 affections; as nodes, typhi, and exostosis, pains of the bones, and carious or cancer- 

 ous ulcers. 



Sir William Fordyce seems to think sarsaparilia a, specific in all stages of lues ; but, 

 from an attentive and careful observation, of its effects in some thousands of cases, I 



must. 



