TJnKFV H OUT US JAMAICENSIS. 2*S< 



TLT&KEY BERRIES. SOLANUM. 



Cl.. 5, or. 1. Pentandrid mimogt/ni'a. Nat. -OR. Luridie. 

 Cek. CHAR.-r-See Calalue, branched, vol. l, p. Ml. 



MAMOSUM. 



Solanum bacci f 'erum, coule et ftflirs toiuerito-incanis, spinosis, (lore lit-- 

 teo fructu croceo, viinore. Sloane, v. l, p. 236, t. 144. f. 3. S. 

 3 and 4 ,>f Browne. 



Stem prickly, herbaceous, leaves angular, lobed, villose on both sides. 



Stem about five or six foot high, tomentose, prickly branched; prickles bonding 

 downwards ; leaves alternate, on long prickly pedicels, large, roimdfch, angular 

 Lobed, soft, hairy on both sides, midrib prickly below. The flowers are produced in 

 bunches from the side oi the stalks, of a pale yellow or dirty white colour ; succeeded 

 by r#und yelfow berries. There are two varieties, both very common in Jamaica, the 

 berries aboutthe" size of small cherries, which are eaten by turkies, whence the name 

 turkey berries, they are also known by the names sonskumber, cot-nail, PoTt-Morant 

 tobacco, and macaw bush One of the varieties has a yellowish and the other a purplish 

 stalk, and it is not easy otherwise to distinguish them: and both have the same virtues. 

 The expressed juice or decoction of the leaves, rubbed on the parts, is good for the 

 itch, and also for the mange in mules, especially if used externally with lime; and a 

 drench of the juice may be also given now and then during the cure. The leaves boiled 

 with a small proportion of uil-nui leaves are recommended as a good fomentation for 

 sores. Horses eat the leaves. 



This grows very common every where, even about Vie streets of towns and villages. 

 The stalks are very thick set with short crooked prickles, the points downwards, woolly, 

 round, and about three or four feet high ; the leaves are pretty large, and deeply sinu- 

 ated on the edges, and its big rib is set underneath with small prickles, so that they 

 make a good fence ; the flowers are monopetalous, though the ora be divided into five 

 petals, reflected back, of a yellowish colour, with apices like the rest of the solanums ; 

 then come round orange-coloured berries, as big as English pease, having five green 

 capsula under them ; the berries are full of an orange-coloured pulp, containing small 

 white seeds. Their roots are very bitter, and of thin parts, and excellent virtue, 

 half an ounce, in powder, purges all humours downwards, opens obstructions 

 -of the liver and prostrates, provoking urine, being used instead of the open- 

 ing roots, which are so much esteemed. Tbe decoction of the roots is diuretic, and 

 good in burning fevers, and with honey in catarrhs, and in the Strang ury, with some 

 -cardamoms, it expels wind. The decoction of the leaves, with sugar and limes, is good 

 for the itch. The juice of the roots and leaves is good for .consumption, and with sugjm 

 ior the soreness of the breast. Barham, p. 1 17. 



See CalaLoe, Branched Ecg-Plant Night-Shades Potatoes Tomato- 

 Berries. 



TUKKEfc 



