358 



bunch reflects downwords from amoung the leaves in Ihis as if willing 

 to make a more conspicuous figuire. is it so in the unedo? wJiat passes 

 here for the filago or gnaphahum ans'* the characters of the Chrisocoma 

 perfectly, hut it is full of cotton & white. when I have an opportunity 

 of writing you by some ship I will send you what specimens I may 

 be doubtfull in & hope for your friendly assistance. I have not yet 

 seen what they caJl the malva arborea, have you examined it? 



Smith in his country of viraterford mentions a marine sensitive plant, 

 it is surely a Zoophite. in Mounlserat we have one frequent like the 

 animal flower of Hughs. there are small slender flexile tubes raising 

 from the rocks in the water, at the end of v^^^ you see a pencell of 

 rays of different colours in the form of a funnell in various motion, if 

 you put the hand or stick near them they retract & if you take the 

 stera, you find it empty. by braking of fragments of the rockes I found 

 it was an animale like a common earth worm all to the end that is 

 divided into a number of tentaculae. sharp pointed of the other end & 

 flatish. we have large ones, there without such tubes that hold to the 

 rocks by suclion & perfectly resemble a granadilla blossom by the 

 uper end. 



1 have observed both in Mountserat & in Jamaica a kind of earth 

 or clay that petrifys when it falls into the salt water. I do suppose from 

 an admixture of Iron ore, hut indeed I have not examined altho ... * 

 think now that it is well worth examination, as such . . .^ would make 

 the noblest cement for all buildings in the . . . ' a*s moles, docks, locks, 

 light houses &c. 



I have just now fmlshed a Dissertation on the yellow fever of 

 America . . .^ or the Siam fever ; one on the nervous fevers of America, 

 another on worm fevers. another on the veneral malady. & 2 short 

 träets on the yaws & inoculation alltogether. will make hut a small 

 volum 8"^° but I do not yet know when they will be printed. My C 

 friend I long to hear from you believe me the expectation of a corre- 

 spondance with you is what gave me the greatest satisfaction on my 

 coming here. do you use the seneka root with you? in Mountserat we 

 have the Ekmi tree but I was not able to get into the woods, I wish 

 I could, I offered a pistole for a little sprig with the flowers & one or 

 two of the fruit, but I could not get one to bringe it. it bears a berry 

 with one, or more nuclei oblong, oval & a little compressed a little of 

 the Germ. frish cures in veterate coughs the best of anything I ever 



