﻿OF JAMAICA. 167 



and methods of culture -, they are fometimes wholly yellow, often red, but 

 commonly mixed, and change their ihades to a great variety ; theie are followed by 

 fo many roundifh feeds that ftand upon the expanded cups. 



The root fliced and preferved opens the body $ it has been fometimes dried and 

 powdered, and then adrniniftered for Jalap ; it purges moderately^ but requires too 

 large a dofe to be adrniniftered in fo difagreeable a form, and feldom anfwers to our 

 wifhes even in that quantity. It is cultivated in Jamaica chiefly for the beauty of its 

 flowers, which are always obferved to open with the cool, and from thence called Four 

 o'Clock Flowers. r r ! 



1 



NICOTIANA 1. Foliis amplis oblongo-ovatis, florihus comofis. 



otiana. Foliis ovatis, : L. H.-C..& Sp. PI. 





Petume Pif. 206. 



Tobacco. 



This plant was probably Aril introduced here by the Spaniards. But it is ftili 

 cultivated by the negroes and poorer fort of white people in many parts of the 

 lfiand : it has fome narcotic qualities, but it is chiefly ufed among us as a fternu- 

 tatory. The lighter decoction of the leaves, &c. are both purgative and emetic, 

 as well as the juice ; but when it continues for a confiderable time upon the fire, 

 the more acrid particles evaporate, and it becomes a ftrong refplutive and fudorific, 

 and has been frequently obferved to anfwer beyond expedition in old catarrhes, 

 and afthmas. ' The fumes are fometimes injected by the way of glifter in the Co- 

 lica Pictonum and Miferere, and have been often found to provoke a difcharge 

 'downward when no other medicines would anfwer. The leaves pounded are fre- 

 quently applied to foul or neglected fores in America, and obferved to anfwer better 

 than any ointments in moil of thofe that lie in the depending parts. Both the infufion 

 and juice of the plant is ufed indifcriminately to warn and cleanfe the fores of cattle, 

 for it has been long obferved to preferve them free from maggots, and to deftroy moft 

 forts of vermin. 



r 



DATURA 1 . Foliis prof wide crenatis, frutlu eretfo Jpinofo. 



Datura Pericarpiis fpinofis ereclis ovatis. L. H. C. & Sp. PI. 

 Stramonium Zey. Thez. Zey. & humatu i a . &c. H. M. p. 2. f. 28. 

 Stramonia Altera major Jive Tatura, &c. Slo. Cat. 59, & Hift. p. 159. 



The Thorn-apple or Burn- weed. 



This plant is very common in moft of the low-lands of Jamaica , and indeed all ovei 

 America, where it generally rifes to the, height of three feet, or better. All the parts 

 of this plant are remarkably narcotic, tho* feldom adrniniftered inwardly on account 

 of thofe dreadful perturbations of the mind that generally attend. the taking of it: 

 the juice however and feeds are frequently ufed with great fuccefs in external appli- 

 cations in thofe, parts of the world j they are commonly made into ointments, and 

 applied in fcalds; and other painful fores, where, they give very evident marks of thofe 

 narcotic qualities with which they are plentifully endowed. The feeds have been 

 . fometimes given internally to half a fcruple. 



4 



COLLOCOCCUS 1. Foliis rugojis • venofis obldngo-ovatis', Jloribus laxe race- 



, ™f u - X* "*; #0 , . / ; 



Cerafo Affinis Arbor baccif era, &c. Slo. Cat. 169, 6c H. t. 203. 

 Cei^&i Americana Filiis rugofis, fruBu vifcido. Pk. Phy. t. 158, f. I. 

 Malpigia Ramis divaricatis. Miller. 



The clammy Cherry, or Turkey- berry-tree. 



Periantium. Parvum monophyllum campamdatum perfijlens ore tri vel quinque 



crenato. 

 Corolla. Monopetala in quinque lacinias ovatas, 6? calice duplo longiores ad bafem 



j'ere feffa. 



I 



Sta 



> 



