%5k HORTUS JAMAICEN8I9. yxsQL* 



\ e more generally caTtivate \ on account of ihz many domestic uses to v.hi.h lha oil- 

 with which it abounds may be applied. 



This is called zesamum, or scwnium dfricanum. The first time I saw this 

 plant, it was growing io a negro's plantation, who told roe, they ground the \ etj| 

 between two stones, and eat it as they d> corn. J observed it hath a small Ion* 

 fibrous root from whence springs up a straight square stalk, like a netde, 1*0 

 or three feet high, set about widi long leav s o iposite to one anotner, anil 'agged. 

 much resembling thelantiurn^ or archangel ; and at the tops ol the stalks tome 'or* di. 

 vers, white flowers, like digitalis; after which come their seed-vessels, full of small. 

 white seeds, which the negroes call sponga or ivolongo, which is much like the Sg*t 

 so! J in shops, bat very oils-. The o:l mat is drawn from it is called sergilint^L Tiis-' 

 see! is often mixed and ground with coco, to make chocolate In Ethiopia aiidEgvpt,. 

 th. y use the oil as we do oil-olive : It is made by grinding the si-e i, and expressing 

 the oil, as they do by other seeds. The seed and oil are hot, moist, emouiefct, and re- 

 solving ; breed gross n mrishment, an I therefore hurtful to weak stomal lis. Dropped-, 

 into the ear, it is good to soften the hard wax, and nelp deafness. A decoction oi the 

 plant is goo J fir coughs, pleurisies, inflammations of the lungs, hard sclftrrous tumour?, 

 and women use it for hardness of .the womb. The herb and seed, boiled in honeys. 

 make a good cataplasm or poultice for hard tumours, and dried nere&.r!r* shrunk si- 

 news ; so doth the oil A decoction of the whole herb, flowers, and sods, is good in 

 clysters, to soften the belly, and give a stool or two. The juice of the herb or distilled] 

 water is good for sore eyes. The decocted see 1 fattens, the oil more,, and -he ^regs 

 (which are eaten for food in Ethiopia) more than the oil ; women often drink the oil, 

 to be fat. The dre^s (when they make the oil by boiling) is given to four ounces m 

 pleurisies and pains, and in ail diseases of the skin, outwardly a^ well as inwardly. In 

 Greece, they use it for cakes, mixing it in maki i > their bread I.i Bengal it is plan u.- A 

 to in 'ke ill ; but it makes ground p >or. Toe oil takes off the roughness of tUe t! roat, 

 clears the voice, and mollifies hard imposthumes. This oil is better for making odori- 

 ferous oil than others, because of its durability The oil, u taken to four Ounces fof 

 many days, is good against the itch, hard -breathing, pleurisies, pains in the stomaoh, 

 womli, an. I guts, and is every way as effe t i il as linseed oil. Sir H Sloane s.iih, that 

 fnr. James Cunningham, V. ft. S and his very good friendf wrote to him from China, 

 Where he was physician to tne English factory, informing him, that the bean, or 

 mandarin broth, so frequently mentioned in the Dutch t rflbassy, and oiher authors. > 

 Only an emulsion made of the seeds of sesamuui . n i hot water. Bui ham, p. \2U 



2. INDICl'M. INDIAN. 



Sesatniim vetermn Sloane, v. I, p. 161. Foliis inferfa'ibus trijidU 

 dentatis, superiortbus oulongis se rra! is. ~-Biu\\iw t p. ^70, S. 1. 

 Lower leaves trifid. 



This plant very much resembles the former, and possesses, in all respects, the samtf 

 virtues, and perhaps may only be a variety. 



YA.NILLA. 



