168 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



SECTION XXVI. 



Doctor Berry s official Letter to Governor Beatson — suggests the Culture of 

 Ketv Nopal and Cactus Tuna, the Arabian Date, and Guinea Grass — 

 Doctor Berry's fermenting Balls an excellent Substitute for Yeast — Captain 

 Haig's Report on Nopal — a nutritious and valuable Antiscorbutic. 



To the Honourable Colonel Beatson, Governor, S^-c. Sfc. Sfc. St. Helena. 



Honourable Sir, 



Having, whilst traversing the most interesting parts of this 

 extraordinarv volcanic island, seen, with much satisfaction, the 

 very beneficial consequences that have resulted from your zealous 

 and unremitted endeavours to encrease the means of subsistence 

 to the inhabitants, and to render the island thereby a less ex- 

 pensive tenure to England, I trust you will excuse the liberty I 

 now take of enclosing a letter from Captain Haig, commanding 

 the ship Regent, detailing the advantage he has received for 

 his ship's crew ; and of expressing my confident hope of this 

 public address being the means of also adding the culture of the 

 Nopal to the list of your objects of public improvements. 



The leaves that Captain Haig has been able to obtain for his 

 crew, are from a prickly Cactus, supposed in India, to be a native 

 of the Mauritius, and there used only as a fence before the Tuna 

 was generally known and distributed. If these leaves have been 

 found as a vegetable so much superior to the watery poor vegeta- 

 bles procurable for sailors, and these even in inadequate quantity, 

 and at a price too high to be furnished for any length of time, 

 how much superior would the leaves of the Kew Nopal, and of 



