D io s c o r e a .
Y a m s ,
C a r ic a .
M usa.
Sativa, v. tab. 130. This fpecies has a cluttered root ;■ grows--
wild in Jamaica, but is greatly cultivated in India as a food-. D-
Pentaphylla, v.. tab.-127, and Alata,, Brown’s Jamaica, ?,^, Gerard,
923. Thelaft the tife'ful yams of the Weft Indies*-,. arp o f
equal fei'viee for their falutary roots- as a food. Thefe,. and-
numbers of other congenerous twining plants, aflift to fupport
the Indian peafantry, content with fimple diet.
Papaya, TrewEbre't.tib.B, Is common to the E d ftP n i Weft:
Indies, ahd to Senegal. It is a lingular tree, having the fruit"
growing out of the fides of the item, o f the form.of a m el on,,
and ribbed, filled in the infide with feeds, and is as large as a.
child’s head t the Item is quite ftrait, the leaves- large,, and:
divided info numbers of lobes. This tree is fuppofed to have-
been introduced by the Portuguefe from the Brazils into the
Eaft Indies-, many other fpecies, now common there, are.-
thought to have been brought by them from the new world.
Paradifiaca, v- tab. 60, 5"rew Ehret- tab. 18, 19, 20. This is*
the celebrated plant which the Jews- believe to have been the
tree o f knowlege of good and evil, placed in the midft o f the.-
'Garden o f Eden, which our great mother- was forbidden to.
touch; ahd by her difobedience brought fuch heavy penalty on-
all her offspring. Milton does not attempt to defcribe i t h e
only fays-—
A bough o f faireft fruit, th a t downy fmil’d,.
New gather’d, and ambrofial fmell diffus’d.
Moderns
IModerns do -not fpeak in raptures o f the fruit. Sir JoJepb
■Banks gives the moft favorable account, that they all have a
pleafant vinous tafte. Three fpecies merit that praife; the
others mutt he dreffed by frying or boiling, and fo eaten as
bread. But the form rtf the plant is the moft grotefque in nature,
and moft rich when loaden, as it is, with its fplendid looking
fruit. The ftem grows to the height o f ten or twelve fefet, .
and to the. thicknefs of a man’s leg, yet can readily be cut
through with a knife ; neither does it live above two-years. It
cannot rife to the dignity o f a tree : its leaves are the largeft
o f any known vegetable; fome are more than twelve feet long,
and two broad ; are very fmooth, of an elegant green above,
and yellow beneath; they more refemhie paper than a leaf, and
give a moft ruftling found. The fruit grows in vaft clutters,
and is of an oblong lhape, and is filled with a pulp loft as butter.
Dodtpr frew, by the ikilfui hand o f Ebrel, gives o f it the moft
oomprehenfive idea.
T h is fine plant was not overlooked by the undents. Pliny p.m.a Push.
-certainly means this fpecies by his Pala, which he defcribes in
thefe words, lib. xii. c. 6,— “ Major alia pomo et fuavitate prse-
■“ cdllentior, quo fapientes Indorum vivunt. Folium alas avium
“ imitator longitudine trium Cubitorum, latitudine duum.
“ Fructum cortice emittit, admirabilem fucci dulcedine, ut uno
quaternos fatiet. Arbori nomen palae, pomo arienae.” . '
T his account agrees well, not only in the fize o f the leaves
and fruit, and delicacy o f the pulp, but it alfo gives us reafon to
fuppofe, that there had been fome tradition delivered down to
I i 2 the