DR WRIGHT'S HERBARIA. 273 



no use. It sheds its numerous shining leaves in January ; in 

 April a vast number of beautiful small florets bud forth on 

 the trunks and small twigs, then follow the leaves, and lastly 

 a smooth shining purple plum, of an agreeable taste and 

 smell, containing a hard stone, whose surface seems woven in 

 a net-like manner with cross fibres. 



These plums, when full grown, are stewed with sugar 

 into a kind of marmalade, and, if eaten with milk, make an 

 agreeable repast. 



The specimen of florets which I examined had only four 

 styles, but it was not worth while to rank it differently on that 

 account. 



76. Rhizophora mangle, L. — Mangrove Tree. 



The mangrove tree grows nowhere else but in salt marshes 

 by the sea-side. Its height is often fifty feet. The trunk sel- 

 dom exceeds eighteen inches in diameter. The wood is hard, 

 and useful in building houses, especially if made into posts to 

 be sunk in the earth, which will last many years. 



The bark of this tree might be useful in tanning leather. 



Mangrove leaves are of a shining green colour. The blos- 

 soms are yellow ; the fruit long and pointed. Some of the 

 branches point directly down into the water, and taking root in 

 the earth, rise again into another tree ; so that arcades from ten 

 to fifteen feet high are formed, and in this manner the body 

 of the tree is supported. 



77- Crate va gynandra, L. — Garlic Pear. 



This tree is of the size of a cherry-tree. The leaves are 

 numerous, and of a light green colour. In March and April 



S 



