PIMENTO. 427 
deliquescent, though only partially re-dissolving after its separation. 
Left in water, it fur ins a disturbed and viscid solution ; mixed with 
sweetened water, it causes it to become equally viscid, and it appeared 
to me to be the real cause of that viscid consistence which the cane -juice 
and syrup assume before fermentation. This substance, escaping from 
the action of the agents used to purify the juice, accumulates in this 
liquid, and is found in considerable quantity in the syrups. It must, 
therefore, be considered as one of the chief causes which hinders the 
extraction of sugar at the second boiling, as it is a powerful obstacle to 
the regular crystallization of this substance. Complex in its nature, it 
plays an important part in the manufacture of sugar in the Colonies, and 
lor this very reason it deserves to be studied in a more special manner. 
I shall presently determine the~quantities of it which different kinds of 
syrup contain. 
(To be continued.) 
PIMENTO. 
All the pimento which arrives in Great Britain comes from Jamaica, 
and is the produce of Euginia pimenta, Dec. — Pimento, vulgaris, Lindl. 
An inferior species {E. acris) with larger berries, grows in the Island of 
Tobago, and is occasionally imported into France. Jamaica enjoys a 
monopoly of this product. Every attempt to carry the seed to St. 
Domingo and Cuba, and to propagate it there has failed, and though 
the tree is found in Yucatan, the fruit is not exported thence. 
The small, dry, reddish-brown berry is sometimes called Jamaica 
pepper, and often allspice, from ils taste and flavour (qualities which 
reside chiefly in the cortical part of the berry) being supposed to 
resemble that of a mixture of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs. Its pro- 
perties are chiefly due to a volatile oil. The pimento walks are situated 
in the mountains, on the north side of the island, where the trees grow 
in hundreds. It is a white-trunked, shapely tree, not unlike in shape 
and growth an English apple tree, but with a thicker, richer foliage, and 
dark, glistening leaves, aromatic, like its fruit, and resembling those of 
the myrtle, to which family it belongs. The trunk is white, because 
every year the bark strips. Nature seems to have intended that some 
useful purpose should be served by the bark, but hitherto it has not 
been made available commercially. The tree blossoms twice, but only 
bears once a year. The blossom that holds and sets to fruit appears in 
April. The trees form the most delicious groves that can possibly be 
imagined, filling the air with fragrance, and giving reality, though in a 
