trumpet ' IJORTUS JAMAICEN9ISh JWf. 



2. PALUSTRIS. MARSHY. 



Sytoeslrh, assurgens, tenuis et ramosa ; paniculj laxa racemose. 

 Browne, p. 340; 



It appears very Jouhtful whether this is not the same plant as the first species ; they 

 pre common in all the lagoons of J imaica, and it is certainly worthy of experiment 

 whether they produce seeds that will form so useful an article of food as the same plant 

 loes in America ; they are so similar in all their parts to the American plant, that no 

 scientific distinction has been drawn between them, and it is therefore extremely pro- 

 bable that they possess the same qualities. Carver says that in America it is the most 

 valuable of all its spontaneous productions, as it affords in its grain not only a valuable 

 food for the human species, but attracts an infinite number of wild-fowl, which become; 

 fat by feeding on the seeds. 



TRUMPET-TREE, or SNAKEWOOD: CECROPIA. 



Cl. 22, or. 2. Dioecia diundria. Nat. OR. Scabridee. 



Gfn. ci*r. Male calyx an ovate spathe, bursting, caducous, containing very many 

 aments, fasciculate, columnar, imbricate with scales ; the scales (receptacles) co- 

 pious, turbinate; compressed-quadrangular, obtuse, with a double perforation: 

 no corolla, unless the scales be called nectaries ; stamens two capillary ver\ short- 

 filaments, from the perforations of the scales; anthers oblong, quadrangular. Fe- 

 male calyx a spathe ; aments four, columnar, imbricate with germs; no corolla:* 

 the pistil has many imbricate germs, compound-quadrangular, obtuse ; styles so- 

 litary, very short; stigmas somewhat headed, lacerated: the pericarp is a berry, - 

 the form of the germ,, one-celled, one seeded: seed oblong, compressed. Tnere 

 is only one species, which is a native of Jamaica; 



PELTATA. P-t.LTATE. 



Tcnruma de Oviedo. Moane v 1, p. 137, t. 88, f. 2. and t. 89. lia- 

 mis excavatts, joliis amphs peitatis atque lebatis. Browne, p 111. 

 This tree rises to a considerable height, being seldom under thirty-five to forty feet 

 Ligh The trunk and branches are hollow everywhere, and stopped from space to 

 space with membranous, septas, answering, to so manj light annular marks in-the sur- 

 face. It shoots both its leaves and fruits in the same manner, and each, while young, 

 is covered with a men branous conic cap, which falls o;f from the base without splitting, 

 as they acquire a certain iegree of perfection. The leaves are few, alternate, large, 

 at the ends of.the branches, peltate, divided into many lobes hke those of the papaw, 

 downy white underneath, petioled ; lobes entire, sharp, rugged on the upper surface, 

 the nerves obliquely transverse,, and the veins very muclAo. There are stipules be- 

 tween tne leaves, as in the fig, opening on the side opposite tothe leaf, obvolute, or 

 imbricate on the edge, soon falling off. Linn us The fruits rise, four, five, or- 

 snore, from the very top of a common peduncle, and shoot into so many oblong rv-> 

 lindric berries, compose J of a row of little acini", something like the raspberry, h 



they resembl in flavour when ripe, and are agreeab.e to m <st European pala'e-^ in lat 

 apeount. This tree is very common in most par s of Jamaica. Tiie wood, -vhen i y, 

 i5 very apt to uke fire by attrition ; and has been, lor this reason, uiucii in iise aovng 



Hi) 2 the. 



