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or ten minutes. I have frequently watched them as 
they have been recovering, and have always found it 
has been by a vibratory motion, like the index of a 
clock. 
Some of the forts are fo fufceptible of the touch, that 
the fmalleft drop of water falling on their leaves will 
caufe them to contrad, but others do not move with- 
out a much greater prelfure. 
The roots of all the forts have a very ftrong difa- 
greeable odour, almoft like that of a common fewer. 
I have met with fome accounts of thefe plants, in 
A 
which it is mentioned, that the leaves and branches 
have a poifonous quality, and that the Indians extradl 
a poifon from them, which kills by flow degrees, and 
that the root of the plant is the only remedy to expel 
it ; but how far this is true I cannot fay, having never 
made any experiments on the qualities of thefe plants-, 
but if thefe plants are endowed with fo deadly a qua- 
lity as related, this fenflbility with which they are en- 
dued, may be defigned by providence to caution per- 
fons from being too free with it and as many of them 
are ftrongly armed with thorns, fo that is a guard 
againlt their being eaten by animals ; for in all the 
enquiries which I have made of thole perfons who 
have refided in the countries where they naturally 
grow, I could never learn that any animal will browfe 
upon them. 
Thefe plants are all of them natives of America, fo 
were unknown to the other parts of the world till that 
was difcovered, for I have not heard of any of them 
being found in any other country : and a few years 
ago I lent fome of the feeds of thefe plants to China, 
which fucceeded, and occafloned great admiration in 
all who faw the plants. 
The Acacias are fo nearly allied to the Mimofas in 
their characters, that Linnteus has joined them in 
the fame genus j and as his fyftem is now generally 
followed, fo in compliance with that I have done the 
fame. 
The tenth fort of Acacia is the tree from whence 
the true Succus Acacia: is taken, and the Gum Ara- 
bic exfudes from the branches of the fame ; which, 
though mentioned as a native of Egypt, yet it is alfo 
found in divers parts of America, from whence the 
feed of this tree have been fent into England, and 
there railed in feveral gardens near London. 
This tree arrives to a large fize in the countries where 
it grows, but in England is rarely feen more than eight 
or ten feet high. It frequently flowers in autumn, 
but never produces any feeds. 
The eleventh fort is the molt common kind in Jamaica 
and Bar’badoes, and the other warm parts of America ; 
and, for the fweetnefs of its flowers, has been dif- 
perfed through moll parts of Europe ; and though a 
native of the warmer parts of the Indies, it hath been 
made familiar to the Italian gardens, and is cultivated 
likewife in great plenty in Portugal and Spain. 
The Italian gardeners, who bring over Orange-trees, 
&c. every year, generally bring alfo many young 
plants of this fort to England, under the title of Ga 
zia ; but as they are too tender to live in a common 
green-houfe in England, fo few of thofe which are 
pure ha fed of them lucceed. 
I have had fome plants of this fort upwards of fix- 
teen feet high, which have produced great numbers 
of flowers in July and Auguft, but thefe were kept 
in a (love in winter, and in glafs-cafes in fummer, to 
fereen them from wet and the cold, for they will not 
flower in the open air in this country. The flowers 
are of a bright yellow colour, and fmell fweet ; in the 
Weft-Indies it is called Sponge-tree. 
1 he twelfth lort is at prefent very rare in England, 
and only to be found in fome curious gardens. This 
tree produces its fpines by pairs, which are extreme 
large and crooked, and of a whitifh colour -, but I do 
not remember ever to have feen this flower. 
In England, from the dried famples, however, which 
I have received from Campeachy, with many flowers 
upon them, there appears but little beauty in them ; 
nor do the trees in their native foil make a better ap- 
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pearahee, their branches always growing deformed* 
and being but thinly garnifhed with leaves, when in 
• their greateft vigour ■; but for feveral months they are 
deftitute of leaves, fo that the only thing remarkable 
in this tree is* the uncommon wreathed fpines with 
which the trunk and branches are fully hefet. Thefe 
have the refemblance of animal horns, and are vari- 
oufly twilled and contorted. 
The twenty-third fort was brought from the Bahama 
Xflands by Mr. Catefby, anno 1726. The feeds of this 
plant (which are flat, and one half of a beautiful red 
colour, the other half of a deep black) grow in long 
twilled pods, opening when the feeds are ripe, on one 
fide, and letting them out, which hanging by a finall 
thread for fome time out of the pods, make a very 
agreeable appearance ; the leaves of this tree branch 
out and divide into many ramifications : the lobes are 
roundifh, and placed in a very regular order. The 
flowers have not as yet appeared in England, but 
from a painting done from the plant in the country, 
they feem to be very beautiful. 
The thirteenth fort was brought from Jamaica, and 
is growing in the pbyfic-garden at Chelfea ; this hath 
four large lobes to each leaf ; the fpines are lhoft, ft iff, 
and crooked, and the feeds grow in twilled pods like 
the former. This plant is well ddcribed in Sir Hans 
Sloane’s Natural Hiftory of Jamaica. By the inha- 
bitants of America it is called Do£tor Long, under 
which name the feeds are frequently brought to 
England. 
Moll of the other forts here mentioned, were col- 
lected by the late ingenious Dr. William Elouftoun^ 
in Jamaica, at Vera Cruz and Campeachy, who fent 
the leeds of molt of them into Europe, many of 
which are now growing in the phyfic-garden at Chel- 
fea, where fome of them have produced flowers and 
plenty of feeds. 
Thefe being all tender, are to be placed in ftoves in 
the winter, and in fummer mull be but a fhort time 
expofed to the open air, and have a warm filiation. 
They are propagated by fowing their feeds on a hot- 
bed in the fpring of the year, which will in a.fnort 
time appear above ground, and in about five or 
fix weeks after, be fit to tranfplant, when a frefh, 
hot-bed is to be prepared for them, and fhould be 
pretty warm ; the next thing to be provided is a quan- 
tity of fmall halfpenny pots, which are to be filled 
with frefh, light, fandy earth ; thefe Ihonld be plunged 
into the hot-bed, but not into dung ; for if thefe beds 
are made with warm horfe dung, they ought to be 
covered with earth as deep as the pots, whole bottoms 
fhould reft Upon the dung, for otherwife the roots of 
the plants may fuffer by too much heat ; but beds of 
tanners bark leldom heat fo violently. As foo;i as 
the earth in the pots is warm, which will be in two or 
three days, you fhould carefully take up the young 
plants out of the firft hot-bed, planting four or five 
plants into each of thefe pots, giving them a gentle 
watering to fettle the earth to their roots, and fereen- 
ing them with mats over the glafifes from the heat of 
the fun, until they have taken root ; after which time 
you mull give them air, by raifing the glades in pro- 
portion to the heat of the weather, or to the conftitu- 
tion of the plants. 
The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, forts are very 
tender, efpecially while young, therefore fhould have 
a hot-bed of tanners bark ; and as they increafe in 
bulk, fhould be Ihifted into bigger pots. The earth 
for thefe fhould be a little lighter, and more inclined 
to a fand, than for the other forts ; but never plant 
them in pots that are too large, which is full as bad 
to thefe as to Orange-trees ; neither give them too 
much water, efpecially in winter. The tenth lore 
being the hardieft of the three, will, when grown to 
be woody, Hand in a common ftove, which fhould 
be kept to the point of temperate heat in winter ; and 
in the fummer time, in warm weather, may enjoy 
the open free air : but the eleventh and twelfth forts 
mull have a bark-ftove in winter nor fhould they 
be expofed to the open air in fummer, at lead for four 
-or 
k 
* 6 ? 
