PIMENTO-TREE. 125 



leaves and stalks, especially when bruised, also emit a faint spicy 

 odour, but the hot acrid aromatic taste is entirely confined to the 

 root. 



" In Jamaica ginger attains its full height, and flowers about 

 August or September, and fades about the close of the year. When 

 the stalks are entirely withered, the roots are in a proper state for 

 digging : this is generally performed in the months of January and 

 February. After being dug, they are picked, cleansed, and gradu- 

 ally seethed, or scalded in boiling water; they are then spread out, 

 and exposed every day to the sun, till sufficiently dried ; and after 

 being divided into parcels of about 100 lbs. weight each, they are 

 packed in bags for the market : this is called the Black Ginger." 

 White ginger is the root of the same plant, but instead of the roots 

 being scalded, by which they acquire the dark appearance of the 

 former, each root is picked, scraped, .separately washed, and after- 

 wards dried with great care ; of course more than a double expense 

 of labour is incurred, and the market price is proportionably 

 greater. Black ginger loses part of its essential oil by being thus 

 immersed in boiling water ; on this account it is less useful for 

 medical and other purposes than the white, which is alway^good 

 when perfectly sound and free from worm-holes: but that imported 

 from the East Indies is stronger than any we have from Jamaica. 

 Ginger gives out its virtues perfectly to rectified spirit, and in a great 

 measure to water. According to Lewis, its active principles are of 

 a remarkably fixed nature ; for a watery infusion of this root being 

 boiled down to a thick consistence, dissolved afresh in a large quan- 

 tity of water, and strongly boiled down again, the heat and pungency 

 of the root still remained, though with little or nothing of its smell. 

 Ginger is generally considered as an aromatic, less pungent and 

 heating to the system than might be expected from its effects upon 

 the organs of taste. 



[Woodville. 



SECTION XIX. 



Pimento, All-spice, or Jamaica Pepper-Tree. 

 Myrtus Pimenta. Linn. 



The tree that bears this aromatic berry is a handsome myrtle 

 that grows above thirty feet in height, and two in circumference ; 

 the branches near the top are much divided, and thickly beset with 



