This tree is pretty common in Jamaica, and indeed in all our sugar colonies, but thrives most luxuriantly in the gravelly bottoms of St. Christophers. Its fruit and leaves are equally cooling: the latter are sometimes used in subacid infusions, but the other is most generally preserved with sugar or syrup, and kept in that state throughout the year by most families: It is a gentle grateful cooller and laxative, and much coveted by all new-comers: It is sometimes used in common diluting drinks, and frequently enters as an ingredient in punch, which then seldom fails to open the body. Alpinus says, that the decoction of the leaves kills the worms in children, but with what certainty, I am not able to determine: It is however observed, that most austere vegetable juices do destroy them more or less in these warm climates.
This plant is a sensitive, in some degree, and closes up its leaves on the approach of cold, or moist and heavy air.
The Latin names, synonyms and botanical note printed above the English heading are not transcribed.