140 The Botanical Gazette. t Ma y- 



■ 



rind, 46 whose pods contain sweet but slightly acid pulp fre- 

 quently put up as preserves; pigeon-*pm?> 47 calabash, 48 a tree 

 with few wide-spreading, horizontal branches and fascicled, 

 oblanceolate leaves, the fruit of which is made into drinking 



ry^jXky/ vessels, etc.; the cashew, 49 whose root * taste something like 



/ peanuts; the star-apple, 50 a beautiful tree with leaves glossy, 



dark-green above and ferruginous silky-pubescent beneath; the 

 bimbling 51 bearing its exceedingly sour fruit directly from 

 the trunk; the annatto 52 (spelled also annotto, arnotto, etc.,) 

 with prickly pods, the contents of which yields to water the 

 red coloring matter of commerce; all these are frequent in 

 cultivation, and were to us among the most interesting features 

 of the island 



Two other plants deserve mention. One is the sorrel 53 

 which we observed only in the Luc^a district, where it is 

 common. It grows to the height of three or four feet, losing 

 its leaves in the fall. The calyx continues to grow and be- 

 comes ripe about Christmas. It is then a brilliant scarlet and 

 quite juicy, tasting like Oxalis. The juice is extracted with 

 hot water, flavored with spices and sweetened, thus making a 

 very refreshing drink. 



The second plant is the coco or cacao, 54 from which 

 chocolate is made. The peculiarity of this tree is that the 

 small flowers grow in fascicles right out of the trunk. One 

 sees flowers and all stages of fruit on the same tree. The 

 latter when ripe is a dark red in color, ovoid, six or eight 

 inches long, with ten longitudinal furrows. The seeds are 

 washed free from pulp, carefully dried, and (when made by 

 the natives on a small scale) pounded into coarse powder 

 between stones. To this is added cocoanut oil and enough 

 annatto to color it, when it is formed into cylinders about the 

 size of a candle and six or eight inches long. The cocoanut 

 oil is prepared by grating up the ripe nut, usually very labori- 

 ously by the use of an ordinary tin grater, boiling the meal 

 with water and skimming the oil off. A little annatto is 

 usually added to give it a yellow color. 



46 Tamarindus Indica. (Legum.) 



47 Cajanus Indicus. (Legum.) 



48 Crescentia Cujete. Bignon.) 



49 Anacardium occidentals (Terebinth.) 



50 Chrysophyllum Cainito. (Sapot.) 

 31 Averrhoa Bilimbi. (Oxalid.) 



58 Bixa orellana. (Bixin.) 



68 Hibiscus Sabdarifa. (Mai vac.) 



5 4 Theobroma cacao. (Buettner. ) 



