Cap.VIII. 7 be Caribbjr-lflands. 



the infirmities whereby they might be aflhulted, and divers 

 fovereign Remedies for their recovery when they are fallen in- 

 to them. Not to make mention of any other part of the 

 World, we may affirm it of the Caribbies, that they have all 

 thefe rare advantages in a very great meafure : For they do not 

 only entertain their Inhabitants with a delightful variety of 

 Fruits, Roots, Herbs , Pulfe, Wild-Fowl, Filh , and other 

 delicacies for the Table, but they alio fupply them with a 

 great number of excellent Remedies to cure them of their in- 

 difpofitions. And this the judicious Reader may eafily ob- 

 ferve all through this Natural Hiftory, and particularly in this 

 Chapter, where we (hall defcribe the Trees which are very ufe- 

 ful in Medicine. 



CASSIA-TREE. 



THe Cajjia -tree grows up to thebignefs, and comes neer the 

 figure of a Peach-tree^ the leaves of it being fomewhat 

 long and narrow : They fall off once a year, in the time of the 

 great Droughts, and when the feafon of the Rain comes in, it 

 puts forth new ones : They are preceded by feveral Pofies of 

 of yellow flowers, which are fucceeded by long Pipes or Cods 

 about thebignefs of a mans thumb, and fometimes a foot and 

 a half, or two foot in length : They contain within them, as in 

 fo many little Cells, that Medicinal Drug fo well known to the 

 Apothecaries, called Cajjia, which the Caribbians call Mali Ma- 

 li. Before the fruit is grown to its full bignefs and length it is 

 always green, but as it advances to perfection and ripenefs it 

 becomes of a brownifh or Violet colour, and fo continues 5 hang- 

 ingat the branches. 



When the Fruit is ripe and dry, and the Trees which bear it 

 are fhaken by great winds, the noife caufed by the collifion of 

 xhofe^iard and long Cods (hiking one againft another is heard 

 at a great diftance : This frightens the Birds, and keeps them 

 from coming neer it nay fuch men as are ignorant of the caufe 

 of that confufed found, if they fee not the Trees fhaking, and 

 ftirring their branches and fruits, imagine themielves neer the 

 Sea -fide, and think they hear the agitation of it, or take it for 

 the clafhing of Arms in an Engagement of Souldiers. 5 Tis the 

 obfervation of all thofe who have vifited that part of St. Do- 

 mingo where there are whole Plains, and thofe of a large ex- 

 tent, full only of thefe Treesl It is thence, in all probability 3 

 that the feed of thofe growing in the Caribbies was brought* 

 Thofe fticks of Cajjia which are brought from America are fuller 

 and more weighty then thofe which come out of the Levant^ 

 and the Drug within them hath the fame effects and vertues. 



The Flowers of the Cajjia-tree preferv'd with Sugar gently 

 purge not only the Belly, but alfo the Bladder. The fticks of 



Cajjia 



