206 MEDICINAL PLANTS OF JAMAICA. 



so much starch by one half: however, the sweet potato is 

 good substantial food, and serves instead of bread, which 

 cannot always be had. 



There is a vulgar opinion in Jamaica, that the common or 

 English potato becomes sweet, and degenerates into this slip. 

 The first is totally a mistake ; the latter impossible. 



42. Crescentia cujete. — Calabash. 



This useful tree is planted about settlements. The flowers 

 and fruit grow from the body or large limbs of the tree. 

 The fruit, or calabash, is large and oblong. Some, when 

 hollowed, will contain a gallon of water. The shell serves 

 for utensils for the Negroes, as bowls, cups, and spoons. 



The contents are white, pretty firm, and contain a number 

 of seeds. The juice of calabash, in the quantity of four oun- 

 ces, is given as a purge in all cases where the patient has re- 

 ceived a bruise about the trunk ; and a syrup of the same, 

 with the addition of lime-juice, a little nitre, and paregoric 

 elixir, is by some highly extolled in coughs and consump- 

 tions. 



Small calabashes roasted, and the pulp spread on cloth, 

 make a good poultice for bruises and inflammations. 



A smaller calabash grows wild, but is only a mere variety 

 of the other. 



(The calabash has many branches from one root, seldom 

 higher than twenty feet, and not thicker than eight inches. 

 The wood is very tough and useful for ox-bows and cart-wheels. 

 The leaves on the spreading branches are numerous, and of 

 a deep green colour. 



Dr Canvane observes, that, in consumptions, nothing 

 can be more beneficial than the juice of the calabash. It is 

 also a smart purge, and often administered in female obstruc- 

 tions.) g 



