B R O 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



B R O 



same time, and if not destroyed will soon spread over a 

 whole stove, and entirely stop the growth of the plants. The 

 best method of destroying them, is to wash the leaves, 

 branches, and stems, of the plant attacked, frequently with 

 water in which there has been a strong infusion of tobacco 

 stalks ; which has been found to kill the insects, without 

 prejudicing the plants. Care must be taken to examine 

 between the leaves, or the evil will be but partially removed. 

 Those plants which shew their fruit early in February, will 

 ripen about June ; some sorts are at least a month or five 

 weeks longer in ripening their fruit than others, from the 

 time of the appearance of the fruit ; but the season in which 

 the fruit is in the greatest perfection, is from the beginning 

 of July to the end of September ; though in March, April, 

 and October, they are sometimes found in tolerable perfec- 

 tion. The method of judging when the fruit is ripe, is by 

 the smell, and from observation ; for, as the several sorts 

 differ from each other in the colour of their fruit, that will 

 not be any direction when to cut them ; nor should they re- 

 main so long as to become soft to the touch, before they are 

 cut, for then they become flat and dead, as they do also when 

 they are cut long before they are eaten : therefore the surest 

 way to have this fruit in perfection is, to cut it on the same 

 day that it is to be eaten, early in the morning, before the 

 , sun has heated it, observing to cut the stalk as long as pos- 

 sible, and lay the fruit in a cool but dry place, preserving 

 the stalk and crown to it till it is eaten. 



2. Bromelia Pinguin ; Pinguin or Broad-leaiied W'M 

 Ananas. Leaves ciliate-spiny, mucronate ; raceme terminal. 

 The fruits of this plant are separate, each nearly of the 

 size of a Walnut ; the pulp has an agreeable sweetness, but 

 joined with such a sharpness, that if it be suffered to lie any 

 time in the mouth, it will corrode the palate and gums, so as 

 to make the blood issue from those tender parts. It resem- 

 bles the Pine-apple, by its tuft of leaves growing above the 

 fruits : but on a closer inspection, the difference is easily dis- 

 cerned, the fruits not being coadunute as in that, but pro- 

 duced separately in clusters : it is now very common in 

 Jamaica, growing wild in some of the savannas, and on the 

 rocky hills. It is commonly used there, and in the other 

 islands of the West Indies, for fencing pasture lands, its 

 leaves being formidable to cattle; the edges being very prickly, 

 and the prickles arched backwards. The leaves, stripped 

 of their pulp, soaked in water, and beaten with a wooden 

 inallet, yield a strong thread, which is twisted into ropes and 

 whips, and by the Spaniards is manufactured into hammocks; 

 it has also been worked into good linen cloth. A small 

 quantity of the juice of the fruit in water, makes an admir- 

 able cooling draught in fevers ; a tea-spoonful, corrected 

 with sugar, destroys worms in children, cleanses and heals 

 the thrush, and other ulcerations in the mouth and throat, 

 and is extremely diuretic ; it also makes a very fine vinegar. 

 Dam pier says, the Pinguin-fruit is of two sorts, the yellow and 

 the red. The' yellow grows on a green stem, as big as a man's 

 arm, above a foot high, the leaves are half a foot long, and 

 an inch broad, the edges full of sharp prickles. The fruit 

 grows at the head of the stalk, in two or three great clusters, 

 sixteen or twenty in a cluster ; it is as big as a pullet's egg, 

 round and yellow, the rind is thick, and the inside full of 

 small black seeds. It is sharp and pleasant. The red sort is 

 the size and colour of a small dry Onion, in shape much like 

 a nine-pin; it grows not on a stem, as the other, but one end 

 on the ground, the other standing upright : sixty or seventy 

 grow close together on the same cluster of roots. The leaves 

 are a foot and a half or two feet long, prickly like the former. 

 Both are wholesome, and grow plentifully in the Bay of Cam- 



VOL. i. 17. 



peachy. This and the next species are propagated by seeds ; 

 for, though there are often suckers sent forth from the old 

 plants, yet they come out from between the leaves, and are so 

 long, slender, and ill-shapen, that if they be planted they sel- 

 dom make regular plants. These seeds should be sown early 

 in the spring, in small pots, filled with rich light earth, and 

 plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark. When the plants 

 are strong enough to transplant, they should be carefully 

 taken up, and each planted into a separate pot, filled with 

 light rich earth, and plunged into the hot-bed, again observ- 

 ing to refresh them frequently with water until they have 

 taken new root, after which time they should have air and 

 water in proportion to the warmth of the season. In this bed 

 the plants may remain till Michaelmas, at which time they 

 should be removed into the stove, and plunged into the bark- 

 bed, where they should be treated in the same manner as the 

 Ananas. They will not produce fruit in England until they 

 are three or four years old ; therefore thould be shifted into 

 larger pots, as they advance in growth, for if their roots are 

 too much confined, they will make but little progress. They 

 should also be placed at a considerable distance from 

 each other, for their leaves will be three or four feet long, 

 which turning downward, occupy a large space. The Bro- 

 melias, properly so called, are propagated by seeds procured 

 from their native country, for they do not produce any in Eng- 

 land. These must be sown in small pots, filled with light 

 kitchen-garden earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed of 

 tanner' shark; the earth in these pots should besprinkled over 

 with water two or three times a week, according to the heat 

 of the weather, but must not have too much moisture. If the 

 seeds be good, the plants will appear in about five or six 

 weeks, and in about a month after will be fit to transplant, 

 when they should be carefully shaken out of the pots, and 

 each placed in a separate small pot filled with the same eartli 

 as before ; they must then be plunged again into a moderate 

 hot-bed, observing frequently to sprinkle them over with 

 water, but be cautious of giving them too much, lest it should 

 rot the roots. During the summer season they should have u 

 moderate share of air, in proportion to the heat of the weather ; 

 and in autumn, they must be removed into the bark-stove, and 

 treated in the same manner as the Ananas or Pine-apple, with 

 which management they will make good progress ; but after 

 the first winter, they may be placed upon stands in the dry- 

 stove, though they will thrive much better if they be kept con- 

 stantly in the tan-bed, and treated like the Ananas, and will 

 flower in three or four years, whereas those in the dry-stove 

 will not flower in twice that time. The other part of their 

 culture is only to shift them into fresh earth when they re- 

 quire it ; but they should by no means be put into large pots, 

 for they will not thrive if they are over-potted ; nor must 

 they have much wet, especially in winter. 



3. Bromelia Karatas ; Karatas, or Upright-leaved Wild 

 Ananas. Leaves erect ; flowers stemless, sessile, aggregate. 

 This is an elegant plant, generally found growing at the root 

 of some shady tree, in hilly and woody places, in America, 

 and the Caribbee islands. The fruits, when ripe, are far 

 from unpleasant ; but when unripe, they set the teeth on edge, 

 and excoriate the mouth. The economy of this plant, in 

 preserving its fruit to maturity, is wonderful; being so pro- 

 tected by the spines of the surrounding leaves, as to be se- 

 cured from all injuries. It propagates itself by mucus pro- 

 duced among the leaves, which become procumbent after 

 the fruit is ripened. For its culture and propagation in 

 England, see the preceding species. 



4. Bromelia Lingulata; Tongue-leaved Bromelia. Leaves 

 serrate-spiny ,obtuse; spikes alternate; root perennial, fibrous, 



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