24 



but very pleasant before it is too stale, having some- 

 what of the taste of a Jerusalem Artichoke. This 

 fruit lasts in season eight months in the year, during 

 which time the natives of the islands in the South 

 Seas, where the tree is cultivated, eat no other sort of 

 food of the bread kind. Three trees are supposed to 

 yield sufficient nourishment for one person. 



There are several varieties of this tree, and the 

 fruit of some has a core, and some, long oblong seeds, 

 almost as large as chesnuts. 



This tree is useful not only for food, but also for 

 eloathing, for the inner rind of the young bark is ma- 

 nufactured into a kind of cloth. 



In the year l/9'o Captain Eligh took three hun- 

 dred and forty-seven of these trees to Jamaica, and 

 about the same number to St. Vincent's, in the West 

 Indies, where they now continue to flourish and bear 

 fruit, as in their native soil and climate. 



SEDGE. Of this plant there are enumerated 

 no less man ninety- seven species. It is found on the 

 banks of rivers, and will also grow in the middle of a 

 ditch, or pond, and if suffered to increase, quickly 

 fill up any piece of water. It has creeping roots, 

 which easily make their way through any moorish 

 ground, and hence the Carex is often found in 

 meadows, though in such situations, of less luxuriant 

 growth. From the joints of its horizontal roots it 

 sends up stems, some producing flowers with stamina 

 only, and others bearing flowers with only pistiJJa. In 



