MEDICINAL PLANTS OF JAMAICA. ^ 2$3 



and a plantain or two, afford a hearty meal. They are also 

 served up at the tables of white people as a choice fruit. 

 When the pear is ripe, the yellow or eatable substance is 

 firmer than butter, and tastes somewhat like butter or mar- 

 row : hence it is called by some the vegetable marrow. But, 

 however excellent this fruit is when ripe, it is very dangerous 

 when pulled and eaten before maturity. I have repeatedly 

 known it to produce fever and dysentery, which were removed 

 with difficulty. 



The leaves of this tree, and those of the bead-vine or wild 

 liquorice * are made into pectoral decoctions by the common 

 people. 



The large stone is used for marking linen. The cloth is 

 tied or held over the stone, and the letters pricked out by a 

 needle through the cloth and into the seed. The stain is a 

 reddish-brown, which never washes out. 



(The trunk is covered with a grey bark. The leaves are 

 shining, numerous, and of a lively green colour. What is 

 uncommon, the flowers are proliferous, for, after the first 

 blossoms appear, young leaves shoot out from the middle of 

 the flowers. The fruit is of two kinds, the green and the 

 red. The former is preferred. It is eaten with bread, salt, 

 and pepper. Its taste is like that of butter or marrow, but 

 is considerably more palatable. Europeans at first do not 

 generally like it ; but they soon acquire a relish for it. It 

 constitutes a principal part of the food of all classes ; and it 

 is eaten greedily by the lower animals, from horses, cattle, 

 and poultry, to lizards and insects.) 



65. Malvaceje (Ordo naturalis.) 



Under this title we may comprehend the whole tribe of 

 plants in the sixteenth class of Linnaeus, and the natural or- 

 * Abrus precatorius. 



