426 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO ISQO-I. 



all-spice-tree, has a trunk as thick as a man's thigh, rising straight up about 

 30 feet high, covered with a very smooth skin of a grey colour, and branched 

 out on every hand, having the extremities of its twigs set with leaves of several 

 sizes ; the largest being 4 or 5 inches long, and 2 or 3 broad in the micidle 

 where broadest, decreasing to both extremities, and ending in a point, smooth, 

 thin, shining, without incisures^, of a deep green colour, and standing on long 

 footstalks ; when bruised, they are very odoriferous, and in all things like the 

 leaves of a bay-tree. The ends of the twigs are branched into bunches of 

 flowers, each footstalk sustaining a flower made up of four herbaceous or pale- 

 green petala, bowed back or reflected downwards, within which are many 

 stamina of the same colour. To these succeeds a bunch of crowned or umbi- 

 licated berries (the crown consisting of four small leaves) larger, when ripe, 

 than juniper-berries ; at first, when small, they are greenish ; but when ripe, 

 they are black, smooth, and shining, containing, in a moist, green, aromatic 

 and biting pulp, two large acini or seeds, separated by a membrane lying between 

 them, each of which is a hemisphere, and both together form a globe ; whence 

 Clusius makes it one seed divisible into two parts. 



This tree grows on all the hilly parts of Jamaica, but chiefly on the north- 

 side. It flowers in June, July, and August ; but in several places sooner or later, 

 according to their situation and different season for rain : and after it flowers, 

 the fruit soon ripens ; but it is to be observed, that in clear open grounds, it is 

 sooner ripe than in thicker woods. 



There is no great difficulty in the curing or preserving of this fruit for use. 

 It is for the most part done by the negroes ; who climb the trees, and pull off 

 the twigs with the unripe green fruit, and afterwards carefully separate the fruit 

 from the twigs, leaves, and ripe berries : after which, they expose them to the 

 sun for many days, spreading them thin on cloths, and turning them now and 

 then, and carefully avoiding the dews, which are there very great. By this 

 means they become a little shrivelled and dry, and from a green, change to a 

 brown colour, and then they are fit for the market. They are of different sizes, 

 but generally of the size of black pepper, something resembling cloves, juniper 

 berries, cinnamon, and pepper, in smell and taste, or rather having a peculiar 

 mixed smell, somewhat akin to them all, whence the name of all-spice. The 

 ripe berries are very carefully separated from those to be cured ; whence, these 

 berries coming always unripe dried into Europe, naturalists have thought them 

 to be fructu umbilicato sicco. The smaller and more fragrant they are, they are 

 accounted the better. 



