ON THE ASCLEPIAS CURASSAVICA. 
23 
ham calls blood-Jlower, that a mule had, by some accident, been 
wounded in the thigh, from which a violent haemorrhage of blood is- 
sued, which, after the ineffectual application of all the styptics in his 
shop, was stopped instantaneously by a negro applying a handful of 
the blossoms and leaves of this plant. Another time, by the use of the 
same plant, applied in the same manner, he saw an ass, with a large 
ulcerated wound, full of maggots, cured effectually : for it immediately 
killed the maggots, and then, cleansing the wound, healed it." 
Such are the strong testimonials to the value of a plant 
which Heaven has bestowed with the most lavish profusion 
upon most of the islands composing the Archipelago of the 
West Indies, but which man, in the blind pursuit of unhal- 
lowed gain, contemptuously rejects, or ignorantly overlooks ; 
and yet, when the hurricane has swept the cane from the 
grounds of the planter, or the drought has blighted his hopes 
of r a profitable return, the lowly blood-weed might contri- 
bute its modest aid to lighten the burthen* of his losses, and 
repair the ruinous effects of these fearful visitations. 
The root of this weed, which calls for no care in its cul- 
tivation, and is exposed to but few casualties in its growth, 
which imposes no intolerable labour on the husbandman, 
and awakens little anxiety in the bosom of the planter, if 
gathered at the season of the year in which its properties 
are most active, and dried in the same manner as that of the 
Rheum palmatum, or, which may probably be a preferable 
mode, the alkaloid or other active principle on which^its 
emetic quality depends, extracted on the spot, may yet^fur- 
nish a valuable addition to the imports from our colonies, 
and contribute, in some degree, along with other hitherto 
neglected objects of industry, some of which have been al- 
ready pointed out, to lighten the evils of bad seasons and 
the uncertainties of cane and coffee cultivation. 
I regret much having omitted, while on the spot, to in- 
vestigate the properties of the Asclepias nivea, which I too 
hastily assumed to be identical with those of the Asclepias 
curassavica. An examination of these properties, and a de- 
