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DESCRIPTION 



OF THE 



JESUITS' BARK TREE 



OF 



JAMAICA AND THE CARRIBBEES, 



[Communicated by Joseph Banks, Esq. F. R. S., and read before 

 the Royal Society the 24th of April 1777. Originally pub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixvii. part 2d, 

 p. 504.] 



This species of Jesuits"' Bark grows on stony lands near 

 the sea-shore, in the parishes of St James and Hanover, on 

 the north side of Jamaica ; and I found one small tree, at a 

 little distance from the fort, at Martha Brae, in the parish of 

 Trelawny. The tree is called the Sea-side Beech, and rises 

 only to twenty feet. The trunk is not thick in proportion., 

 but hard, tough, and of a yellowish-white colour in the in- 

 side. The branches and leaves are opposite ; the leaves are 

 of a rusty-green, and the young buds of a bluish-green hue. 

 It blossoms in November, and continues in flower till Febru- 

 ary, having on the same tree or sprig flowers and ripe pods. 

 The flowers are of a duskish-yellow colour, and the pods 

 black. When ripe, they split in two, and are, with their flat 

 brown seeds, in every respect similar to those of the Cinchona 

 officinalis, as depicted in a plate sent out by Mr Banks. 

 The bark of this tree in general is smooth, and grey on the 



