EUGENIA PIMENTA. 
petals four, reflected, of a pale-green color, inclosing many 
longer spreading filaments of the same color, supporting pale- 
yellow roundish anthers. The fruit is a spherical berry, 
crowned with the persistent calyx; when ripe, it is black or 
dark purple, smooth, shining, and bilocular, with the seeds 
enveloped in a moist green pungent, aromatic pulp. When 
the berries ripen, they lose much of the aromatic warmth for 
which they are esteemed, and acquire a taste similar to that 
of juniper-berries. The tree exhales an aromatic fragrance, 
especially during the summer months, when it is in flower. 
JAMAICA PEPPER, commonly called allspice, from the taste 
being thought to resemble a composition of all other spices, 
is about the size of, or somewhat larger than, a peppercorn. 
It is round, brown, dull, roughish, but not wrinkled, crowned 
with the segments of the calyx, and occasionally, though 
rarely, has a short pedicel. It consists of an external, some- a 
Cet 
what hard, but brittle shell, which is paler within, and in 
two dark-brown cochleate seeds. os Ee 3 
The plant begins to bear fruit when three years old, and — 
arrives at maturity’at seven. It grows best in a calcareous 
soil, covered with a light mould. The berries are gathered 
before being ripe, and are carefully dried on mats or terraced 
floors in the shade. The first day or two they are, often 
turned, so as to be fully exposed to the sun. When they 
begin to dry, they are frequently winnowed, and are removed 
under cover at night. In ten or twelve days, or about two _ 
weeks, they become wrinkled, dry, and of a dark-brown color, 
and are then packed in bags or casks for sale. So 
dry them, by which the same object is sooner effected. 
have an aromatic, agreeable smell, and a strong, clove-like — 
taste. The more fragrant and smaller they are, the be ae 
they are accounted. ay pe 8 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
Kueenta Pimenta has an aromatic, agreeable odor, re- 
sembling that of a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmegs, — 
_ with the warm, pungent taste of the cloves, qualities which _ 
reside chiefly in the cortical part of the dried berry. Water, 
alcohol, and ether extract its virtues. The watery infusion is 
of a brown color, and reddens litmus infusion. With solu- 
tion of sulphate of iron, it immediately strikes a deep black _ 
color, and slowly lets fall a precipitate. Nitrate of mercury - 
precipitates it of a yellowish brown, acetate of lead of a dirt 
