158 Culture of Hyper anther a Moringa. 



thus supplying for the West Indians that information which 

 my friend, Mr. Collyns, of Kenton, has, I rejoice to see, com- 

 menced furnishing to the inhabitants of this country. 



The first I shall commence with is the Hyperanthera (Jiy- 

 per, above, antkera, anther : five barren stamens are sur- 

 mounted by five fertile ones) Moringa, a diandrous shrub, not 

 indeed indigenous, but now common in almost every part of the 

 West Indies, and known by the several names of Horseradish 

 Tree, Moringa, and Oil of Ben Tree. It is a shrub of rapid 

 growth and elegant appearance, and has the valuable recom- 

 mendation of coming into bearing within a few months from 

 the time its seed is sown. Its timber, when it has attained a 

 considerable size and age, is ponderous, of a dark colour, close 

 grain, and subacrid bitterish taste, yielding a blue infusion 

 with boiling water, and was formerly known in the shops 

 under the name of Lignum nephriticum, from its supposed 

 efficacy in curing disorders of the kidneys ; it would probably, 

 however, prove much more valuable to our cabinet-makers for 

 ornamental furniture. The gum, which exudes from the 

 wounded bark, appeared to me to possess all the properties of 

 gum tragacanth ; at all events, it invites trial. The bark of 

 the root possesses all the sensible properties of horseradish, 

 and is substituted for it at table, where the difference cannot 

 be detected ; its medical properties are also precisely the same. 

 The long pods, in their young and filiform state, are fre- 

 quently served up to table as a substitute for asparagus, and 

 are very good. But its most valuable product is the oil of its 

 seeds, which it yields more copiously than either the cocoa 

 nut 'of the tropics, or the olive tree of Europe, while its pro- 

 perty of keeping without becoming rancid, for an extreme 

 length of time, renders it invaluable for a multitude of pur- 

 poses ; indeed the seeds abound so in oil as to yield it by simple 

 pressure of the nail. From the experiments of the celebrated 

 Geoffroy, 1 00 lbs. of the decorticated seeds yield about 24 lbs. 

 or 8*4 flascoes of a limpid, scentless, and tasteless oil, being 

 0*4 of a fiasco above Humboldt's estimate of the annual pro- 

 duce of a cocoa nut tree in full bearing, and 1*4 fiasco above 

 the produce of an olive tree of thirty years old in Provence. 

 I am not prepared to say how many moringa trees in full 

 bearing would be necessary to yield 100 lbs. of decorticated 

 seeds, and hence the parallel with the cocoa nut tree is par- 

 tially defective ; and I could wish some of your correspondents 

 connected with the West Indies to supply this hiatus, which 

 might be done without difficulty. However, I should con- 

 ceive, from what I recollect of the tree, which is in continual 



