20.0 
The Natural Hiflory of the Book VIII, 
taining three, four, or five, fomewhat flat roundifh Peas, feparated from 
one another by a flender Partition. Thefe Peas, green or dry, are boiled 
and eaten, and efteemed very wholfome, efpecially if ufed in the wet 
time of the Year ; for, being of a binding Quality, they prevent Diarrhceas 
and Dyfenteries, fo common in wet Seafons. I attribute their Reftringeney 
to a very {mall Quantity of a gummy refinous Subftance, which js 
generally found, more or lefs, in each Pod. 
~ Thefe Trees are produced from the dry Peas, planted about an Inch 
deep. They grow to a confiderable Bignefs even the firft Year, each 
bearing fome Hundreds of Pods ; the fecond and third ftill more nume- 
rous; the fourth and fifth they bear but very {paringly ; in two Years 
more the Tree gradually decays and dies. They thrive beft in a dry Soil, 
and foon perifh in a wet one. 
Thus “ is much Moifture hurtful to fome, whilft kindly to others; . 
“thus fome Plants require a ftrong and rich, others a poor and fandy 
“ Soil; fome do beft in the Shade, others in the Sun.” 
_ This is delineated in Plate XTX. 
Nemnem, or TootH-AcH-TREE. 
es Tree was firft brought hither by a Portuguefe, about fifteen 
Years ago; it takes its Name of the Tooth-ach-Tree from its 
rather fuppofed, than real Quality of curing the Tooth-ach. It differs 
very little, if any thing, except in its greater Bulk, the Length of its Prickles,’ 
and the more falcated Form of its Pod, from the common Aka/ee, 
already defcribed. 
The AKASEE or SWEET-BRIER. 
HIS Shrub is of the thorny Kind, growing to about ten Feet high: 
Its Roots are ftrong and many, and penetrate very deep: into the 
Earth. The main Stem, as well as the whole Shrub, is cloathed with 
reddifh-grey Bark; the Branches are fomewhat, geniculated backward and 
_ forward, alternately. From each of thefe grow feveral Side-twigs; om 
thefe are feveral Pair of very {mall oval pennated Leaves. The Flowers, 
which are of a globofe Form, yellow, and of the ftamineous Kind, rife 
from the Bofom of the Leaves on Stalks, or Pedicles, of about an Inch 
long, guarded at the Bottorn with two fharp Prickles : Thefe Flowers are 
fucceeded. by Pods of about four Inches long, black when ripe, contain- 
ing eight or nine oval Seeds, feparated from each other by fungous Parti 
tions. The Roots, when bruifed, yield an offenfive Smell ; and, if boiled 
toa Decoétion, and drunk, prove mortally poifonous to Man, or Beaft. 
The Pod, when half-ripe, affords fo glutinous a Jelly, that. it is made 
ule of, inftead of Cement, to join together broken China Ware. If the 
main Stem is wounded, there oufes out, in few Days, a tranfparent Gun 
like Gum-Arabic. The Defcription which Mr. Lemery gives of the 
2 Shrub ~ 
