sounds of another's voice, or the sentiments of those who are not his sycophants.

Dr. M'Fadgyen accompanied me to the plantation at the foot of St. Catharine's Peak, one of the highest settlements in the island of Jamaica, and is probably 4500 feet above the sea. On our route from the Doctor's, a distance of six or seven miles, over the mountains of Port Royal, every step almost furnished a subject for botanical observation; and no observation of my companion was devoid of interest.

In the mountain-districts many European plants and vegetables are to be found which are not in the lowlands. I have seen the wild strawberry on the summit of St. Catharine's Peak; and, about three hundred feet below the summit, the apple and the peach; and, amongst trees which are not to be found except in the high lands, the English oak. On the other hand, many of the tropical fruits which flourish in the plains, are not to be found at this elevation. The large majority of the fruit-trees of Jamaica are exotics; a great many are from the Isle de France, brought here in a vessel captured by Rodney; many more from the South Sea Islands, especially Otaheite, for which Jamaica is indebted to Captain Bligh. I have seen the vine in these mountains producing grapes of an excellent flavour and tolerable size. It is not cultivated for wine; but why it

should not be cultivated for that purpose, and successfully, there can be no good reason assigned. Brown says, "The grapes do not ripen regularly; and I believe the assertion is generally true, but I have nowhere seen grapes ripened more regularly; than the Muscadines and natives do in this island." Why not try the experiment of making wine of the latter? On the summit of St. Catherine's Peak Mr. Chisholm, who had the kindness to accompany us, pointed out a plant, without which, he informed me, the fugitive negroes could not abide in the woods: it is a parasitical plant-a species of wild pine, which grows on the large trees; I believe its botanical name is Tillandsia in the hollow at the base of the leaves there is a natural reservoir of water; each plant may contain about half a tumbler full of water.

There is another singular plant called the waterwithe, or Jamaica grape-vine. The stem is full of a tasteless water: three or four feet of the plant will yield a pint of water.

Brown says, "The small black grapes it produces would make a good wine if properly managed."

There is a climbing plant very common in the woods-a species of rhamnus, which has got the name of chewstick, from the use to which it is converted by the Creoles and coloured people. The taste is an agreeable bitter. It is one of the ingredients in the composition of the negro spruce

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beer—a very refreshing and wholesome beverage. The chewstick is not unknown to ladies of fashion in England, both in the shape of a tooth-brush and a powder for the teeth. When chewed, it raises a good deal of foam with the saliva, which gives the negroes, who are eternally chewing this stick, a very disagreeable, almost a rabid appearance.

One of the most singular plants in the island is the jalapa mirabilis, or four o'clock flower, which keeps its petals closed during the hottest hours of the day, and only opens them in the cool part of the afternoon.

Roucou, or arnotto-tree, is found here abundantly; the seeds are covered with a waxy substance, which are similar to that of the ceroxylon Andicola, though not in sufficient abundance to convert to the use which in South America is made of the latter. The people of the Quindiu Andes, we are told by Humboldt, fabricate tapers with the thick layers of wax that cover the trunk of this palm.

A variety of indigenous plants have been of late recommended for cultivation, in lieu of those expensive cultures which it is apprehended the new measure will impede or diminish. Of these there are three which deserve the serious attention of the planters; namely, the caoutchouc plant, the coulteria tinctoria, and the pita. The withe,

which yields the Indian rubber, in Jamaica abounds in the woodlands. In South America there are two trees which produce the Indian rubber of commerce-the hevea caoutchouc and the jatrophia elastica. The merit of bringing this plant lately into notice belongs to a Mr. M'Geachy; but it appears to have been made known to Lord Belmore, who carried to England various preparations of it. The mode of collecting it is by cutting through the withe, and allowing the milky juice to exude, and then coagulating it with alum; in this state it is fit to cast into moulds of any shade. shade. "A good withe may produce at one flowing from one half to a whole pint. I should think," says Mr. M'Geachy, "the length of a foot of the withe would produce enough of the milk, if properly extracted, to make a cubic inch of good Indian rubber. I tried it on cloth, which I rendered perfectly waterproof, simply by immersion in the liquid, and exposure to the sun." In America the consumption of Indian rubber is immense, and every day the application of its use is extending. A patent has been lately taken out for its employment for the inside sheathing of vessels. The coulteria tinctoria has been lately described by Dr. M'Fadgyen in the Jamaica Physical Journal, a very excellent medical periodical, edited by Dr. Paul.

The following is the substance of that description :

"This plant is a native of Peru. It was introduced about two years ago into this country. Some plants of it were tried in the garden at Hope estate, Liguanea, where they have thriven, and produce frequent crops of pods in the course of the year. It grows so freely, indeed, as to have become a weed.

"It thrives in the most parched and arid of our plains. It may therefore be cultivated in the extensive savannahs in the neighbourhood of Kingston, which at present produce little else than firewood. It soon comes into bearing ;—a plantation of it would last for a period of twenty or thirty years.

"The pods of this plant contain tannin, and gallic acid in a greater proportion than exists in any other vegetable production. Hence they may, in the first place, be used as a substitute for oakbark in the process of tanning. According to the report of an intelligent tanner, at Sandwich, communicated to Dr. Hamilton at Plymouth, they are four times stronger than oak-bark. The process is also much quicker, a piece of leather being tanned with them in a fortnight.'

"These pods may, in the second place, be employed in dyeing and ink-making, as a substitute for Aleppo galls. It can be easily proved, by very simple experiments, that the gallic acid is more abundant in the pods of this plant than in the best