SHK-GRASi HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. 173 



having; its branches generally very scattered and irregular. The fruit of this tree when 

 ood, which it seldom is, has a much milder sweet taste than any other of the orange 

 kind. It grows plentifully in a wild state in many parts of Jamaica. 



See Citron I. ime Orangp. 

 Silk Cotton-tree See Cotton-tree, 



SILK-GRASS" BROMELIA. 



Cl. 6, or. 1. Tlexawdria monogynict. Nat. dR. Coronation 



GN. char. See Penguin, v. 2, p. 48. 



KARATAS 

 Aloe yucca foliis. Sloane, v. 1, p. 249. 

 Loaves erect, flowers siemfess, sessile, aggregate! 

 This plant generally grows at the root of some shady tree ; it is elegant, and produces 

 numerous radical leaves, all which are of a subulate linear shape, sharp pointed, and 

 edged with spines. The flowers are scentless, seated in the bosom or middle part of 

 the plant, ros ed, with the calvx and germ downy. . The length of the leaves 



is six or seven feett Th i fruits are oval, two or three hundred in number, and grow 

 sessile in a heap or central gronpe, .surrounded by paleaceous expanded leaves or brac- 

 tcs ; they'contain. a succultnt whitish OEyeHbwish flesh, under a coriaceous and yel- 

 lowish bark; when ripe, they are far from unpleasant, hut, when unripe, they set the 

 teeth on edge and excoriate the month; Tne economy of this plant, in the preserva- 

 tion of its fruit to maturity, is wonderful; being so protected by the spines of the sur- 

 rounding leaves as to be secure from all injuries. It propagates itself by mucus pro- 

 duced amongst the leaves, which become procumbent, after the fruit is ripened. Mar- 

 tyn. Long mentions that some of these plants grew at Wreck- Bay, in Healthshire ; 

 Sloane noticed them at the^Cay mannas. 



This plant is of the aloetic kind. The leaf is not so thick and juicy as sempervive, but 

 much longer ; some are five or six feet long-, but narrow, yet not so narrow as the pine 

 or penguin leaf, nor are they so broader thick as the currato. It is full of small 

 prickles on each side or edge f the leaf, and is tapering from the ground t the top, 

 ending with a small prickle, which makes it of the shape of a lance. 



The chief use of this plant is to make si.k ; which, as the Indians and negroes make 

 it, is quite co irse, but very white, hard, and strong ; of this they make hammocks and 

 ropes, as also fishing- nets, which will endure the water longer than thread. The way 

 that the negroes dress ithere, is only to lav the blade, or leaf, upon a flat piece of wood, 

 and then, holding it fast at one end, scrape off. with a blunt lath or piece of woo, I, the 

 outward green substance, the inward white silk appearing, in-strah_ht lines or tinea !s 

 from one end of the leaf to the other. After they have scraped both sidts, they throw it 

 into clear water, wash all the remaining green from it, dry it in the sun, and tin n twist- 

 it up into ropes, &c. Undoubtedly, this might be wonderfully improved' Nature Hav- 

 ing shewn the way, and brought it to such perfection ready to their liands, it might, 



v ilk 



