FOREIGN BOtAUIf. 305 



While the strange Indian Tree* sends her shoots 



to the ground ; 

 For the Warblers a harvest her fruit will be found. 

 The Cabbage Tree Palm* lifts her broad leaves on 



high; 

 The Fan-Palm^ and Tamarind* also grow nigh ;— 

 The GuaiaCum^ rich in medicinal gum ;— 

 The Ferns* plants perennial and lofty become; 

 The leguminous Cassia,' with flowers of gold, 

 Is pleas'd her pale foliage in light to unfold : 

 While many trees more, in their floral robes dight, 

 Arom£^ diffuse on a zephyr wing light ; 

 For the Birds they would seem almost purposely made; 

 As food some, and others delightful as shade. 



• Ficus tndicus, or Wild Fig. A similar tree is called in 

 the East Indies Banyan. See a more extended poetical de- 

 scription of this tree in Southey's Cur8£ of Rehama; see 

 also Milton's Paradise Lost. 



t Areca oleracea, 



3 Corypha umbraculifera, 



* Tamarindus Indica, 

 ^ Guaiacum officinale. 



^ Polypodium arboreum, or Cyaihea arboreOf a perennial 

 fern rising twenty feet high, with leaves that give it the appear- 

 ance of a palm tree. 



^ Caisia fistula. The fruit of this tree is a woody, round, 

 blackish pod, about one inch in diameter, and sometimes two 

 feet long ; it contains a sweet pulp, which is used in medicine 

 as a gentle purgative. It is a native of both thd Indies; some 

 persons have imagined this to be the wild honey eaten by St. 

 John in the wilderness — but surely without reason. 



