C 340 } 



tural knowledge : and it will eafily be granted,, 

 that the true sera of this fcience commences 

 with LiNN^us, who very early turned his at- 

 tention to it, and has eftablifhed that method, 

 which has been fmce univerfally followed, and by 

 which the hiftory of thefe minuter animals has been 

 greatly extended. 



The prefent catalogue contains the defcription 

 of an hundred rare, and moftly undefcribed fpecies, 

 fent to LiNN^us from Carolina^ Penfylvania^ Su- 

 rinam^ and Java, 



As all thefe zoological defcriptions are fupple- 

 mental to, and illuftrative of, the author's Syftema 

 Natur^e^ they yet retain their value and cannot 

 be fuperfeded, but by a general hiftory of animals 

 on the fame plan. 



122. Lignum Qvas^ije. C. M. Blom, 176^. 



The Raffia Amara (Spec. Plant, p. 552, and 

 p. 1679) or Bitter AJh^ as it is called in the Weft In- 

 dies^ is a tree of the decandrous clafs, the root of 

 which was brought into ufe firft at Surinam^ by a 

 negro, named ^ajfi^ who revealed its virtues. 

 The medicine was known, but the fpecies and 

 true hiftory was long undefined, till at length a 

 branch of the tree, with the flower and fruit, was 

 fcnt to LiNN/Eus from Surinam. The root is the 

 part ufed ; and appears to be the moft pure and 

 intenfe of all bitters. At Surinam it has acquired 

 a high charader in curing the intermitting, exa- 

 cerbating, and malignant fevers, fo endemial to 

 that country and this (as the author afferts) in 



cafes 



