216 MEDICINAL PLANTS OF JAMAICA. 



To be mixed and digested for three days, and then strained. 

 Two tea-spoonfuls of this tincture given in half a pint of sar- 

 saparilla decoction twice a day, will, in general, remove every 

 symptom of lues or yaws in four or five weeks. 



(Decoctions of the wood are often used for ordinary drink ; 

 and a fermented liquor, under the name of mably, is sold to the 

 sailors about Port Royal, which is a mixture of a little ginger 

 and muscovado sugar, with the decoction.) 



55. HiEMATOXYLUM CAMPECHIANUM. Log/VOod. 



JDr Bahham introduced the seeds into Jamaica from Hon- 

 duras about the year 1715. It is at this time too common, as 

 it has overrun large tracts of land, and is very difficult to root 

 out. 



This is generally planted for hedges, and it makes a beau- 

 tiful and strong fence against cattle or stock. If pruned from 

 the lower branches, it grows to a sizeable tree, and, when old, 

 the wood is as good as that from Honduras. 



The trunks and branches have long, sharp spines; the leaves 

 are heart-shaped ; the flowers, on a spike, are yellow, tipped 

 with crimson, smell sweet, and are exceedingly beautiful. 

 The pod is flat, and contains two or three smooth long seeds. 



Logwood trees are cut up into billets or junks, the bark 

 and white sap of which are chipped off, and the red part, or 

 heart, sent to England for sale. 



As a dye and a medicine, it is well known. 



(A person just arrived from Britain would be apt to call 

 this a white thorn ; and indeed it has a great resemblance to 

 it in its leaves and branches, but when in blossom their ap- 

 pearance is very different. It may perhaps have been origi- 

 nally brought from Honduras, but it grows so luxuriantly in 

 Jamaica that it maty be regarded as a native plant. It serve 



