Foreign Vegetables. 109 
bor 9 folio alato , buxeo, fubrotundo ; for 2 pentepetalo , 
cceruleo , racemofo , frudlu aceris cordato : cujus cortex 
luteus , corrugatus , uni cum 9 majufculum , ? 72 £n- 
<wzj, »»//<? tedium, operit. Sloane Cat. pi. Ja- 
maic. It grows in almofl all the Antilles , particu- 
larly in Dominica and Cn/z. 
2. Guaiacum fore cceruleo fimbriato , frudfot tetra ~ 
£ 0720 , Plum. nov. pi. Amer . 39. Guaiacum po- 
lyphyllum frudlu fingulari , tetragono ejufdem hift . Af6V9. 
87. Hoaxacan , lignum fandlum , Hernandez. This 
is found common enough in Dominica. The Wood 
and Bark of thefe Trees are ufed in Phyfick ; as 
alfo the Refin which flows from Incifions made in 
their Trunks. The Wood is beft when frefh, 
heavy, and refinous, with a confiderable Mixture 
of Black in its Colour, having the Bark adhering 
clofely to it ; and when it eafily takes Flame, and 
fome Part of it melts with the Fire into a refi- 
nous Mafs. But when it is of a pale Colour, dry, 
or too much deprived of its Juice, carious, and 
infipid, it is bad. The Bark ought to be chofen 
refinous, hard, and cleaving firmly to the Wood. 
The Refin which in the Shops is improperly called 
Gum Guaiacum , is of a brown Colour on the out- 
fide, and tranfparent within, fometimes reddifh and 
fometimes greenifh, brittle, of an acrid Tafte, and 
when it is burnt of an agreeable refinous Smell, 
pretty much like theWkjod. 
In a chymical Analyfis , five Pounds of the re- 
finous and blackifh Wood of Guaiacum reduced 
to a kind of Saw-duft, yielded twenty eight 
Ounces and four Drachms of Phlegm, both acid 
and alkaline ; whereof the firft four Ounces feven 
Drachms and a Half having the Tafte and Smell 
of the Wood, difcovered Marks of a mere alka- 
line urinous Salt, forafmuch as they made the 
Solutions of Salt of Lead and corrofive Sublimate 
1 foul 
