210 MEDICINAL PLANTS OF JAMAICA. 



It is a climber, has slender stalks, the leaves trifoliated, the 

 flowers small and papilionaceous. The pods are about four 

 inches long, round, and as thick as a man's finger, containing 

 a few hard oblong seeds. 



The outside of the pods is thickly set with stiff brown hairs 

 or bristles, which, when applied to the skin, occasion a most 

 intolerable itching. 



The ripe pods, when dipped in syrup, are scraped with a 

 knife, and then thrown away. When the syrup, with these 

 seta?, becomes as thick as honey, it is fit to use. It acts me- 

 chanically as an anthelminthic ; occasions no uneasiness in 

 the first passages, which are defended by mucus ; and may 

 be taken safely from a tea-spoonful to a table-spoonful once 

 a-day. 



47. Epidendrum Vanilla. 



This plant is carefully cultivated in the Spanish West In- 

 dies, where it is a native. It also grows wild in the moun- 

 tains of Jamaica. Dr Swartz, a learned Swedish botanist, 

 found it there about three years ago. 



The pod is a valuable perfume, and fetches a great 

 price. It merits, therefore, the attention of the people, and 

 their representatives in assembly, that it may be cultivated 

 and sent home as an article of commerce. 



48. Epidendrum claviculatum. — Green Wythe. 



This plant is found on gravelly and rocky lands. It runs 

 or creeps on the ground, taking root here and there in its 

 progress. The stem is as thick as a man's finger, round, 

 green, and succulent : it is jointed at every twelve or fourteen 

 inches, and is several yards long, without leaves. The flow- 

 ers are large and yellow ; the pods two inches long. 



On viewing the expressed juice with a glass, or the naked 

 eye, we find it full of long spiculae or hairs. Dr Drummond, 

 a learned and ingenious physician and botanist in Westmore- 



