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MYRTUS PIMENTA. 
Pimento, Jamaica Pepper, or All-spice * 
Class IcoSANDRiA. — Order Monogynia. 
Nat. Ord. Hesperide^, Linn. Myrti, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Ca/ya; five- cleft, superior. Petals five. Berry 
two or three-celled, many seeded. 
Spec. Char. Leaves oblong, lanceolate. Flowers mostly 
terminating the branches in trichotomous panicles. 
This species of Myrtus is a native of South America, and the West 
India Islands, flowering in July. It is much cultivated in Jamaica, 
from whence the berries are chiefly imported into this country. f 
The Pimento tree was first introduced and cultivated in Britain by 
Mr. P. Miller, about the year 1789. In this country it is a stove 
plant, but requires a strong heat to produce its flowers in much 
perfection ; neither does it rise to the height nor size that it does in 
its native soil. This tree often exceeds thirty feet in height, and 
two in circumference, much branched towards the top, and thickly 
beset with leaves ; the stem and branches are covered with a greyish 
smooth bark ; the leaves vary in form and in size, being more or 
less pointed, and from three to four inches long, petioled, veined, 
pointed, elliptical, of a deep shining green colour, and are produced 
singly, or two or three together ; the flowers are produced in 
numerous trichotomous panicles, which usually terminate the 
branches; the calyx is persistent, and divided into four roundish 
segments; the corolla is composed of four ovate petals, placed 
opposite each other ; they are small, reflexed, of a white colour, 
somewhat inclining to green ; the filaments are numerous, spreading, 
longer than the petals, and support roundish anthers, of a pale 
yellow colour ; the style is simple, erect, crowned with an obtuse 
stigma ; the germen becomes a round, succulent, shining berry, 
(crowned with the persistent calyx) of a dark purple or black colour 
* Fig. a, the ripe frait. 
t Hence probably the name Jamaica pepper. 
