181 



In Italy are many coppice woods, of what onr 

 gardeners call the flowering ash. Manna is procured 

 by piercing the bark, and catching the sap as we do 

 that of birch trees, to make birch wine. It begins 

 to run in the beginning of August, and in a dry sea- 

 son runs for five or six weeks. But we have no 

 need to be beholden to the King of Naples. For 

 the tree grows as well in England as in Italy. What 

 stupidity is it then to import, at a large expeuce, what 

 we may have at our own doors ? The leaves of this 

 tree are the proper Sena 3 and better than any brought 

 from Apulia. 



Peruvian bark comes from a tree about the big. 

 ness of a p^umb-tree. Its leaves are like ivy, and 

 are always green. It is gathered in autumn, the rind is 

 taken off all round, both from the boughs and the 

 tree, and grows again in fouc months. It bears a, 

 fruit, not unlike a chesnnt, except its outward shell. 

 This shell is properly called China-china, and is es- 

 teemed by the natives far above the bark, which is 

 taken from the trunk or boughs. And it seems 

 this only was in use, till the demand for it so in- 

 creased. 



The tree which produces cotton in common in 

 several parts both of the East and West Indies. The 

 fruit is oval about the sfee of a nut. As it ripens, 

 the outside grows black, till opening in several places 

 by the heat of the sun, it discovers the cotton of an 

 admirable whiteness. But as fine cotton is now- 

 made in Ireland from flax, as ever grew on the cotton 

 tree. 



Pepper grows on a shrub in several parts of the 

 East Indies, which is of the reptile kind ; and for 

 that reason is usually planted at the foot of some 

 larger tree. It grows in clusters which at first are 

 green. .As the grains ripen, they grow reddish; 

 and after being exposed awhile to the sun ? become 



