The History of the Island of Dominica: Containing a Description of Its Situation, Extent, Climate, Mountains, Rivers, Natural Productions, &c. &c.Atwood, Thomas
History
The History of the Island of Dominica: Containing a Description of Its Situation, Extent, Climate, Mountains, Rivers, Natural Productions, &c. &c.
Atwood, Thomas
Black people -- Dominica; Dominica -- Description and travel; Dominica -- History; Natural history -- Dominica; Slavery -- Dominica
The shaddocks are of two sorts, the one white in the inside, the
other red; they are a large fruit, some of them being as big as a
good sized musk-melon; but the red sort of them is most admired.
The juice is contained in separate divisions of a thin, skin-like
substance, as transparent as diamonds, and which have much the
look of them, finely squared and polished. It has a sweet taste,
tinctured with a bitter, and when the fruit is ripe is very
agreeable, and reckoned a good addition to a glass of Madeira wine
after dinner. The rinds of them also make good sweetmeats.
The water lemon is a fine fruit, of the shape and size of a
dunghill fowl’s egg. The rind of it is of a bright yellow colour,
the inside is full of small, flat seeds, covered with a juicy
pulp, which has a very agreeable, musky taste. It grows on a vine,
which bears a very beautiful blossom, very much resembling the
passion flower; and the vine is much admired, because it affords
the most delightful shade when turned over an arbour.
The granadilla is rather larger than the largest sized Lisbon
lemon, and is an excellent fruit. It also grows on a vine, which
bears a delightful sky-blue and yellow blossom, very fragrant,
and of the same appearance as that of the water lemon, but much
larger. The rind of the fruit is also of a yellow colour, but not
so bright as the other; and the inside is full of seeds covered
with a juicy pulp, but not of so musky a taste. The granadilla is
much recommended to people in fevers, its juice being very cooling.
The rind of it mixed with a little lime-juice, makes an excellent
tart, nearly equal to those made with English apples; and so very
refreshing is the scent of these fruits, that many people suffer
them to decay on their side-boards, for the sake of their agreeable
smell.
The sappadilla is of the size and make of a bergamot pear, its
juice is of a gluey nature, and of a sweet taste. The tree which
bears it resembles a pear-tree, and its timber is very serviceable
for mills, or to make cartwheels of.
The pomegranates in Dominica are not so large as those brought
to England from other countries; but they are fleshy, sweet, and
good, when thoroughly ripe. They bear a delightful scarlet-coloured
blossom, which, in size and make, is very like the flowers called
blue-bottles; and the skin, or shell of the fruit, being boiled
into a decoction, is given to persons afflicted with the flux.
The alligator pear is of the shape of an English bell pear, but
is much larger. There are two sorts of this fruit, the one of a
purple-coloured rind, the other of a pale green: the latter is
the largest, and most esteemed. They are excellent fruit, and are
greedily eaten by all kinds of animals; for even horses, who are
in general not fond of fruit, will eagerly eat them. This is the
fruit which is called in the West Indies “Vegetable marrow,” from
its rich melting taste, and it is justly reckoned the best and most
wholesome fruit of the country.
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