The small shrubby acidoton is pretty common in the savannas about New-Greenwich, where it seldom rises above four feet in height. The branches are very slender and flexile, and the leaves small and delicate, and shoot with the flowers early in April or May. The whole plant has a good deal of the appearance of a young ebony.-Browne, These plants are nearly aliied to the croton. Dr. Houston constituted a genus of the two first by the title of bernardia, in honour of Dr. Bernard de Jussieu. They are propagated from seeds. No English Name. CL. 10, OR. 1.-Decandria monogynia. NAT. OR.-Lomentaceæ. This name is derived from two Greek words, signifying a glandulous anther. GEN. CHAR. Calyx small, one-leafed, five-toothed; corolla five-petalled, bellshaped; stamina shorter than the corolla; anthers roundish, incumbent, bearing a globose gland at the outer tip; germen oblong and gibbous below; style subu late and the length of the stamina; stigma simple; the pericarpium a long compressed membranaceous legumen; seeds many, round, remote. This is an EastIndia tree, of which three species are known, the most remarkable is noticed in the Hortus Eastensis as having been introduced into that garden by Mr. Wiles, in the year 1802. The following account of it is quoted from Gærtner and Forster, in Dr. Martyn's dictionary: PAVONINA. ADENANTHERA. Leaves smooth on both sides.. A tree with prodigious decompound or doubly pinnate leaves, leaflets ovate, obtuse, quite entire, on very short petioles, sometimes alternate, sometimes opposite. Panicle of simple thick racemes, with the floscules on equal pedicels. Flowers comparatively very small, and yellow. Legume nearly a foot in length, repand at the sutures and obscurely torulose at the seeds, smooth, one-celled, two-valved. The valves after they open are loosely and spirally twisted. Seeds from eight to twelve, obovate-rounded, convexly lens-shaped, highly polished, of a vivid scarlet colour, with a circular streak in the middle on each side. This is one of the largest trees in the East-Indies, and the timber is in common use, on account of its solidity. It flowers in September, bears fruit at the beginning and end of the year, and is never without leaves. The duration is two hundred years. The natives use the powder of the leaf in their ceremonies. The seeds, besides being eaten by the common people, are of great use to the jewellers and goldsmiths, on account of their equality, for weights, each of them weighing four grains: They also make a cement, by beating them up with water and borax. Of the bruised leaves they make a drink which they esteem good against pains of the loins. ADRUE. CYPERUS. CL. 3, or. 1.—Triandria monogynia. NAT. OR.-Calamaria. GEN. CILAR.-The glumes are chaffy, imbricate in two rows; scales ovate, keeled, flatinflected, inflected, separating the flowers; no corolla; stamina three, short, anthers oblong and furrowed; germen small; style long; stigmas three capillary: Seed single, three-sided, acuminate, destitute of villus. There are many species of this genus, for which see SEDGES, the specific name of adrue or jointed stalked cyperus is ARTICULATUS. it Juncus cyperoides creberrime geniculatus, medulla farctus, aquaticus, radice rubra, tuberosa, odorata. Sloane, v. 1, p. 121, t. 81, f. i. This rush has a tuberous, red, knobbed root, having a very grateful smell, like that of calamus aromaticus, covered with brown withered leaves, as well as the under part of the stalk, like other rushes, and having several red strings going from the root of one to that of another. The stalk is round, green, three feet high, smooth, having within very strong and frequent transverse partitions or membranes, making it jointed with a pith between. At the top stand several brown chaffy panicles, like those of cyperus grasses, the small, long, spikes, being made up of several reddish scales, lying over another on the same footstalks, all coming from the rushes top, as from a common centre. This having a very grateful scented root, I question not but that it may be very successfully used in place of calamus aromaticus.” Sloane also mentions another plant, juncus, cyperoides, culmo compresso striato, radice odorata tuberosa, capitulo rotundo compacto, a variety of the adrue, which he received from the Bay of Honduras; and he was informed it grew upon the sand near Truxillo, where the Indians used it as a cure for the belly-ache.-Sloane. The roots are esteemed cordial, diuretic, and cephalic, serviceable in the first stages of the dropsy, resisters of poison, and expellers of wind. They cure ill-scented breaths, and are good in nephritic disorders and colics. The roots, aromatic and stimulant, may be used in the place of Virginian snake root. Infusion good in vomitings, fluxes, &c.-Dancer, p. 387. The following account of the virtues of the adrue or anti-emetic grass is from the ma→ nuscript of Mr. Robert Cowan, member of the royal college of physicians in London : "The discovery of its surprising properties was made by Dr. Howell of Jamaica, in checking and restraining black vomit in yellow fever. A strong decoction or infusion of this plant is as much a specific in restraining vomiting in yellow fever, as the Peruvian bark in cure of remittents. It gives out its virtues in water in decoction, or warm grows infusion, to be taken when cold, when it assumes the colour of Madeira wine. It by rivers and marshy lands, rises two and a half feet high, resembles the sedge or bullrush, the leaf like grass or sedge of a large coarse kind, and has a ridge on the back, which, when dry, cracks into two parts. The roots are much like the serpentaria or snake root, fibrous, bushy, and matted. The seeds are like grass, but placed in little bushes or clusters at the top of the stalk. The first tea-cupful of the decoction represses the vomiting, and the second or third cures. By experiments made on the use of the differe. parts of the plant, it is found that the strongest is made by boiling the whole plant, cut or sliced, roots, seeds, leaves, and stem, altogether. The quantity two handfuls in three pints boiled to the evaporation of one-third," The The efficacy of the adrue decoction in repressing continued vomiting was lately experienced by a gentleman in Spanish-Town. There are several species of the cyperus, not unlike the adrue, which may be mistaken for it; and it is worthy of experiment to ascertain whether these other kinds possess the same virtues. See SEDGES. AESCHYNOMENE-See BASTARD SENSITIVE.. AKEE. Genus doubtful. CL. 8, OR. 1.-Octandria monogynia. This plant was brought to Jamaica in a slave ship from the coast of Africa, and, having thriven well, has been generally propagated, and succeeds in most parts of the island. The late Dr. Broughton described it particularly in the Hortus Eastensis, from which the following characters are taken: GEN. CHAR.-Calyx five-leaved and inferior, with concave, acute, ovate, small leaves, persistent and hairy; corolla five-petaled, oblong-lanceolated, acute, hairy, bent at the base, and pressed to the receptacle, alternate with the calyx, and longer; stamina eight short filaments, hairy, inserted at the base of the glandulous receptacle of the germen; antheræ oblong, disposed in an orb, and almost of the same length, round the germen; germen sub-ovate, three sided and hairy; the styli the length of the germen, cylindrical and hairy; the stigma obtuse; pericarpium, a fleshy capsule, oblong, obtuse on both sides, triangular, trilocular, trivalved, and gaping from the apex; semina, three, orbicular, and glossy, having a rising appendice. This tree often rises to the height of fifty feet. The trunk is covered with a rough, somewhat brown, bark, hath many long, thick, irregular branches, the lower inclining to the earth. The leaves are pinnated, ovate, lanceolated, full of veins, entire, opposite, smooth, and bright above, about a span long, four or five on each side, with short turgid footstalks. The branches are simply spread, the twigs have many flowers, with each its stalks, spike fashion. The flowers are small, white, and scentless. The fruit is as large as a goose's egg, of a yellow, red, orange, or mixed, colour. The seeds are three, black, as large as a nutmeg, one of which is often abortive. To each seed grows a white substance, exceeding the size of the seed, of the consistence of beef fat, and which, gently boiled with water, scarce differs from marrow. This, by the inhabitants of Guinea, is served at table alone or mixed with broth or pottage. + The delicacy of the white lobes of this fruit when fried or boiled, and eat as marrow, or sweet-breads, or in soups, renders it well worthy of cultivation. It thrives best in the lowlands. In the mountains it seldom bears fruit, and the north winds are extremely injurious to it. If the tops be blasted or broken off it throws out new and vigorous shoots from the root and stem. When in bearing it has a most beautiful appearance from the contrast of colour in the different parts of the fructification. This plant is easily propagated from the seeds, ALDER OR BUTTON TREE. CONOCARPUS. CL. 5, OR. 1.-Fentandria monogynia. NAT. OR.-Aggregate. This takes its name from two words, signifying cone-fiuited. GEN. CHAR.-Calyx one-leafed, very small, five-parted; corolla five-petalled, converging, or none; stamina five or ten, subulate, erect, anthers globose; germen large, style short; no pericarpium; seeds solitary, obovate, with a membranaceous thick margin, on each side. The flowers are aggregate. There are three species, two of which are natives of Jamaica. 1. ERECTA. Alni fructu, laurifolia arbor maritima. Sloane, v. 2, p. 18. t. 161, f. 2. Foliis oblongis, petiolis brevibus, fioribus in caput conicum collectis. Browne, p. 159. This tree grows erect, nearly thirty feet; with lanceolate leaves, which are greasy to the touch. The younger branches are angular. It is esteemed a good fire-wood. Sloane describes it as follows: "It has a trunk as thick as one's thigh, having a smooth whitish or grey bark. The leaves are almost oval, only somewhat broader towards their end; towards the tops of the branches, among the flowers, they are narrow and pointed, of a yellowish green colour. The tops of the twigs are branched, sustaining at first some small roundish heads, no bigger than those of pins, growing larger, hairy, downy, or muscose, of a yellowish green or red colour. They augment to so many round red balls, like alder cones or buttons, sticking to the branch by a quarter of an inch long footstalk, each of which is made up of a great many reddish cornered seeds, sticking on a fungous matter on its outside, and regarding its centre, so that by their means it is rough or echinated. It grows near the sea-side by Passage-Fort and Old-Harbour, among the mangroves. Butterflies swarm very much about this tree." 2. RACEMOSA, Mangle foliis ellipticis ex adverso nascentibus. Sloane, v. 2, p. 66. t. 187, f. 1. Foliis elliptico-ovatis, petiolis biglandulatis, racemis laxis, fructibus sejunctis. Browne, 159. Leaves lanceolate-ovate bluntish; fruits segregate. This is a lofty and branching tree, growing from thirty to forty feet high, sometimes dividing into three or four trunks, close to the ground. The younger branches are shining, red, and opposite. Leaves quite entire, shining, thickish, greasy to the touch, deep green, opposite, three inches long, on a red petiole, with two glands at the top of it. Racemes simple, terminating, commonly by threes. The flowers are small and sessile, and have a slight not unpleasant smell. The petals are whitish. Stamens ten, five alternately shorter, probably sometimes overlooked; (hence Browne only attributes five stamens to the flower). The seed inclosed within a coriaceous pericarp, is composed of two greenish ovate lamelle, wrapped up into a round body, and involved in a very thin membrane. The lamelle in the base of the pericarp become a round obtuse, shining body, forming the axis of the seed, destined to put forth the roots: for, when the capsule falls to the ground, it penetrates the crowned apex, and, when the fibres take possession of the soil, it constitutes the rudiment of the future trunk; then the lamella increasing in bulk, burst the capsule, and become the radical leaves. Sometimes there are are two seeds inclosed in the same pericarp. From the above description it appears that this tree, although it agrees in many respects, yet differs very much from the former species. The Spaniards call it mangle bobe, or foolish mangle. Sloane calls it the white mangrove. These trees have no great beauty. They grow in most of the sandy bays and marshes about the island, and may be propagated by seeds, slips, or cuttings. The fruit is drying, binding, and healing; and the bark tans leather well. ALL-HEAL-See SELF-HEAL. ALLIGATOR APPLE OR CORKWOOD CL. 13, OR. 7.-Polyandria polygynia. NAT. OR.-Coadunate. This plant has also been termed the shining leaved custard apple. The name of the genus can boast of no learned derivation, Linneus having adopted it from an American term for a mess, on account of the fruit of some of the species being so called by the natives. GEN. CHAR. Calyx a small three-leaved perianthium; corolla six-petalled, cordate, and sessile, the three alternate interior ones less; the stamina have scarcely any filaments, the anthers numerous and placed on the receptacle; germen roundish, and placed on a roundish receptacle, no styles; numerous obtuse stigmas covering the whole germ; the pericarpium a large roundish berry, one-celled, with a scaly bark; seeds many, hard, ovate-oblong, placed in a ring, nestling. There are several species indigenous to this island, referred to below; the alligator apple is the ANNONA PALUSTRIS. Annona aquatica foliis laurinis atravirentibus, fructu minore conoide Leaves oblong, rather obtuse, smooth; fruits areolate. This tree rises thirty or forty feet, the trunk as thick as one's middle; the leaves are shaped like those of the bay, smooth, dark green, and hard. The fruit is as big as one's fist, turbinated like a sour sop, hanging by an inch-long foot-stalk, which brings out some of the pulp with it, when ripe, leaving a hole in the fruit. The outward skin is first green, then yellow, smooth, only it hath some checquered lines on its surface, as the custard apple. The seeds lie from the centre to the circumference of the fruit, and are as large as a bean, oblong, almost round, of an ash colour, having a crest running their lengths, lying in an orange-coloured pulp, of an unsavoury taste, but has something of the smell and relish of an orange.-Sloane. It grows in great abundance about the south side lagoons, and on the banks of several rivers. The fruit or apples are large, and of a cold watery quality, esteemed highly narcotic, and even poisonous; but of the latter we have no certain proof. When they are ripe, and drop into the water, the alligators watch their falling, and, at the proper season of the year, are said to subsist chiefly upon them. They have a sweetish taste C 2 and |