BOOK III. CHAP. VIIT. 839 



vere pain for feveral hours afterwards, occafioning an Inflammation, 

 wliich was relievable by applying lime-juice to the part. 



The flories, related of the fruit or apple of this tree, are cer- 

 tainly to be clalled amongft vulgar errors. The romantic tales of 

 the early voyagers and travelers into America have been copied by 

 different writers; and the credibility of their relations, thus built 

 upon a feries of fuch frail authorities, has at length been received 

 as authentic and indifputable. Moll of thele hiflorians affirm, 

 that '« the apple is lovely to the eye, pleafant to the tafte, but 

 " mortal in its effedls ;" and that " certain failors, having taken re- 

 " fuge from fudden Ihowers of rain under the branches of this tree, 

 " were terribly bliftered in their Ikins by the drops which trickled 

 " from the leaves." 



It is true, that the apple bears fomc fimilitude, viewed at a fraall 

 difhmce, to the Englifh crab-apple j but the crab-apple was never 

 admired for lovelinefs of afpedl. It feldom exceeds an inch in 

 diameter, is of a yellowifh colour when ripe, and has fcarcely any 

 pulp at all; the fruit conlifting of the outer ikin, or rind; a pulp 

 about as thick as a wafer ; and then the ftone, or feed, which is 

 perfectly hard and inedible. Its tafte is bitterifh ; and, when it is 

 green, acrimonious, like the hulk of the ca(Iiew-nut ; which muft 

 necefllirily render it fo difguftful, that no perfou could eat it in tliis 

 ilate for pleafure. 



A gentleman of my acquaintance, who was fond of making ex- 

 periments, to fatisfy himfelf upon doubtful points, cut the green ■ 

 fruit ; and a fmall quantity of glutinous juice ifllied out at the 

 wound. He tailed this, and likewife the bark and leaf of the tree ; 

 but could perceive only a flight aftringency on his tongue. He 

 then cut deeper into the bark of the trunk, and tafted feme of the 

 milky juice that' oozed out. He obferved that it tingled his tongue 

 gently, and rendered his falroa thin and fluid. He afterwards 

 tailed the fruit nearly ripe, and, chewing the riper part, found it 

 perfedly infipid. From thefe fails it appears, that, when green, 

 the juice of the fruit is difagreeable from its acrimony, and, when 

 ripe, for its infipidity. 



Browne fays, that he has known many perfons who have igno- 

 rantly ate of the fruit, which they had millaken for crab-apples ; 



that • 



