Hortus americanus: containing an account of the trees, shrubs, and other vegetable productions, of South-America and the West-India Islands, and particularly of the island of Jamaica; interspersed with many curious and useful observations, respecting their uses in medicine, diet, and mechanics / By the late Henry Barham ; to which are added, a Linnaean index, &c. &c. &c.
- Henry Barham
- Date:
- 1794
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Hortus americanus: containing an account of the trees, shrubs, and other vegetable productions, of South-America and the West-India Islands, and particularly of the island of Jamaica; interspersed with many curious and useful observations, respecting their uses in medicine, diet, and mechanics / By the late Henry Barham ; to which are added, a Linnaean index, &c. &c. &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![■^or maxima materic ruhro laxo odorato : Thefegrowin plenty in the mountains, and,' where they grow, they reckon the' ground rich ; they are next in bignefs to the cotton-tree that they make canoes or boats of. • I have feen fome cedar-trees three feet in drameter, with nine feet in circumference. The leaves are like thofe of the common plumb-tree of America, almoft like the Englifli alh-leaves, and they have a round berry which the birds eat; the wood is foft like deal, but reddifh, having a very pleafant fmeli ; its gam is like gum arabic, vf^'y tranfparent, and eafily diilbives in water^ wherefore the Ihoernakers ule it as gum arabic. The other fort is called ] sniper cedar, and is the lame fort that growvs in l^ermndas : This hath leaves like the favine or fii;, or pine trees ; .its wmod is whiter than the other, fmeliing more like juniper berries; the gum refills putrefaclion, and kjiis worms^ Celandine. I har^e often met with this plant, and wondered how they came to call it celandine, it differing fo much from the Englifli fort; for this generally grows fix or' feven feet high, with a very thick flalk covered with a white fmooth bark, branching vrith a great many large leaves, and deeply divided at the ends, of a vellowilh^' green colour on the upper fide, and whitifh under- neath; on the top comes out a branch of a foot long, full of bunches of flowers, each handing on a fiiort, foot-llalk, and hath in it many ftamina or threads of a yellow colour, and feed-veffels of an oval fhape, in. the middle of wdaich is a fmall brown oblong feed: All parts of this yield, in breaking, a yellow juice, like common celandine, from which it hath its name, as I fuppofe. Idernandez calls it quauhchilliy five Chilli f;.>ccie5, from its fharpnefs like Indian pepper, and ■ « G 3 faith](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29319870_0053.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
