Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 2 (of 2): A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present dayLanaghan, Mrs.
History
Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 2 (of 2): A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day
Lanaghan, Mrs.
Antigua -- Description and travel; Antigua -- History
Turpentine Tree, _burseræ gummifera,_ belongs to the order
diœcia, class polygamia; the calyx is triphyllous, the corolla
three-leaved, and the seed-vessel tri-valved. It grows very fast,
and sometimes attains a great height. The trunk is of a bright
brown, sometimes mottled with red, and presents a glossy
appearance; the leaves are broad, and of a deep green. It is so
tenacious of life, that it will bud and blossom after being cut
up and planted as posts.
Nickel, or nickar tree, _guilandina,_ is a curious genus of the
monogynia order, decandria class of plants. There are two
species, the _bonduc,_ or yellow nickar, and the _bonducella,_ or
grey nickar. They are both of them climbing plants, sometimes
attaining the height of fifteen or eighteen feet. The flowers are
quinquefid, the petals of a yellow colour, and growing from the
wings of the stalks. The germen becomes an oblong pod, thickly
covered with slender spines, two-valved, and containing two hard
seeds of the size and shape of a marble; those of the bonduc are
yellow; the bonducella, of a beautiful grey colour, from whence
their respective names.
Locust-Tree, _hymenæa courbaril;_ order monogynia, class
decandria. This tree sometimes rises to the height of sixty or
seventy feet, in a straight column-like trunk, of two or three
feet in circumference, covered with an ash-coloured bark. The
leaves are of a dark-green, and the flowers, divided into five
segments, and of a pale purple, streaked with yellow, come out in
loose spikes at the end of the branches. The germen becomes a
thick fleshy pod, of four or five inches long, covered with a
hard brown shell, and containing a farinaceous substance, in
taste something like gingerbread, but of a most intolerable
odour, but which is eaten heartily by the negroes. In it is
seated two or three hard brown seeds, of about the size of
marbles, but of an oblong shape. The timber is used for making
bedsteads, &c., while from the roots a dark transparent gum may
be procured, which, when dissolved with spirits of wine, forms an
excellent varnish.
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