44 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. use for the joiner and carpenter, and to make hoops, bows, wheels, and 

 ^^^^y^^ even ribs for small vessels, instead of Oak, he. though the fruit and the 



leaves have not the due value with us, which they deservedly enjoy in 



other places of the world. 



2. But it is not here I would recommend our ordinary black fruit- 

 bearer, though that be likewise worth the propagation, but that kind 



raised for that use^ the tree should not be suffered to grow tall. The leaves should be shorn 

 off along with the tender twigs^ which injures the plant much less than pulling them by 

 the hand. This kind should be raised from seeds procured from Italy or the south of 

 France. 



4. MORUS CriNcroRu ) foliis obliqu^ cordatis acuminatis hirsutis. Mulberry with oblique, 

 kearl-sliaped, acute-pointed, hairy leaves. Morus fructu viridi, ligno sulphureo tinctorio- 

 Sloan. Hist. Jam. 2. p. 3. Mulberry with a green fruit, whose wood dyes a sulphur colour. 

 Fustic wood. 



This tree is better known by the title of Fustic, which is given to the wood, than by its fruit, 

 which is of no estimation. It grows naturally in most of the islands in the West-Indies, but 

 more plentifully in the Bay of Campeachy, where it abounds greatly. This wood is one 

 of the commodities exported from Jamaica, where it grows in greater plenty than in any 

 other of the British islands. This tree, in the countries where it grows naturally, rises to the 

 height of sixty feet and upward. The bark is of a light-brown colour, with some shallow 

 furrows. The wood is firm, solid, and of a bright yellow. It sends out many branches on 

 every side, covered with a white bark, and garnished with leaves about four inches long, 

 which are broad at their base, and indented at the foot-stalk, where they are rounded ; but 

 one side is broader than the other, so that they are oblique to the foot-stalk ; these diminish 

 gradually, and end in acute points ; they are rough like those of the common Mulberry, 

 of a dark green, and stand upon short foot-stalks. Toward the end of the young branches 

 come out short catkins of a pale herbaceous colour ; and in other parts of the same branches 

 the fruit is produced, growing upon short foot-stalks. The fruit is as large as a nutmeg, 

 of a roundish form, full of protuberances like the common Mulberry, green within and on the 

 outside, and of a luscious, sweet taste when ripe. This species is too tender to thrive in this 

 country, unless preserved in a warm stove. There are several of the plants now growing 

 in the Chelsea garden, which were raised from seeds sent from Jamaica by William 

 Williams, Esq. with many other curious sorts, which are natives of that island. The seeds 

 of this plant come up freely on a hot-bed; and when the plants are fit to remove, they 

 should each be planted in a separate small pot, filled with fresh light earth, and plunged into 

 a hot-bed of tanner's bark, and shaded from the sun till they have taken new root. Let them 

 be treated in the same way as other plants from those hot countries, always keeping them 

 in the tan-bed in the stove, where they will make good progress. These plants retain their 

 leaves great part of the year in the stove. 



5. MORUS fPAPYRjFERA ) folils palmatis, fructlbus hispidis. Lin. Sp. PI. 1399. Mulberry 

 with hand'shaped leaves and prickly fruit. Morus sativa, foliis urticae murtuae, cortice 



