2IO DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



a Madagascar raphia, ra/?A/# pedunculata (Pal. de 

 Beauy.) > which furnishes the sago, and whose 

 leaves are employed for tissues ; a sort of calamus 

 with winged leaves, and a foot-stalk like a fila- 

 ment, garnished with thorns an inch long disposed 

 in the manner of leaflets ; a nutmeg-tree, myri- 

 stica aromatic a; the virola sebifera of Cayenne, 

 a species related to the preceding, whose fruit 

 yields a substance employed in making candles ; 

 ^several species of the cinnamon-tree, laurus cin- 

 namomea, one of which sent from Ceylon to 

 Manilla, where it was obtained by M. Perrottet, 

 is much superior in savour to that cultivated at 

 Cayenne ; the bitter quassia, Q. amara, an Indian 

 tree well known in medicine ; the couroupita 

 guyanensis, a large tree covered nearly the 

 whole year with beautiful, odoriferous flowers, 

 and fruit in shape resembling a cannon-ball ; the 

 carapa guyanensis, which is 80 feet in height, 

 and whose seeds yield an oil ; the chocolate- 

 nut-tree, theobroma; the long-leaved omphalea, 

 omphalea diandria, a shrub of the spurge family, 

 whose branches climb above the highest trees 

 and decline again to the ground, and whose fruit 

 contains an esculent kernel ; the American genip- 

 tree, genipa americana, from South America, 

 whose flowers shed an agreeable odour, and 

 whose fruit yields a deep violet dye ; the laurel- 



