C 526 ] 
like wife deep this fruit in water, and afterwards fer- 
ment the inluffon, and thus make a vinous liquor: 
that the Dutch in the Eaft-Indies, as well as the 
natives, mix this fruit with their tea and fherbet. 
Kasmpfer in his Amcenitates Exoticae, p. 880. calls 
it Somo 3 or Skimml , and has given us a very good 
figure of a branch ol it, with the leaves, flowers, and 
fruit. He found it in Japan, and fays that the 
Japonefe and Chinefe efleem it a facred tree, that 
they offer it to their idols, and burn the bark of it, as 
a perfume, on their altars ; and lay the branches upon 
the graves of the dead, as an offering to the ghofts of 
their pious departed friends ; and that the public 
watchmen ufe the powder of this aromatic bark 
ftrewed in fmall winding groves, or little channels, 
on fome allies in a box lecured from the weather, for 
the following purpofe. This powder being lighted at 
one end, burns flowly on, and being come to cer- 
tain marked diftances, they ftrike a bell, and by 
means of this time-keeper, proclaim the hours of the 
night to the public. And laftly, that it has the remark- 
able property of rendring the poifonofthe bladder-fifh 
( 'Tetraodon Ocellatus of Linn. Syft. of Nature, p. 333.) 
more virulent, as many have experienced, that have 
ufed violent means to deftroy themfelves. 
We are indebted for the firft difeovery of this cu- 
rious American tree to a negro fervant of William 
Clifton, Efqj chief juftice of Weft Florida, who was 
lent to collect fpecimens of all the rarer plants by his 
mafter, at my requeftj and in April, 1765, he met 
with this curious tree growing in a fwamp near the 
town of Penfacola ; the fpecimens I received in July 
following. 
After 
