SECTION VI.

GINGER.

GINGER was introduced into the new world by the Spaniards from the East Indies, and being very easily cultivated, was soon raised in great quantities; no less than twenty-two thousand and fifty-three hundred weight having been exported by them to Old Spain during the year 1547. This aromatic vegetable is distinguished into two kinds, white and black; but the difference of the two arises merely from the modes of curing them; the former being rendered fit for preservation by means of boiling water, the latter by insolation; and as it is found necessary to select the fairest and soundest roots for exposure to the sun, white is commonly one-third dearer in the market than black ginger.

In the cultivation of this root, no greater skill or care is required, than in the growing of potatoes in Great Britain, and it is planted nearly in the same manner; but it is fit for digging only once in the year, unless for the purpose of preserving it in syrup, in which case, it must be taken up at the end of three or four months, while its fibres are tender and full of sap. Ginger thus prepared, is an excellent sweetmeat, and is so well known, as to render any description of it un

necessary.

SECTION VII.

ARNATTO.

ARNATTO is an indigenous shrub, which rises to the height of seven or eight feet, producing oblong hairy pods, somewhat resembling those of a chesnut. Within these, there are generally thirty or forty irregularly figured seeds, which are enveloped in a pulp of a bright red colour, and a fragrant smell, in appearance like that sort of paint called red lead, when mixed up with oil; and as paint, it was used by some tribes of the Indians; in the same manner, as wood was by the ancient Britons. All the produce of this plant which is at present exported from Jamaica, is gathered from the trees which grow spontaneously. The method of extracting the pulp and preparing it for sale, is, that of boiling the seeds in clear water, till they are perfectly extricated; after which, the seeds are taken out, and the water left undisturbed, for the pulp to subside. It is then drawn off, and the sediment distributed into shallow vessels, and dried gradually in the shade.

Arnatto, thus prepared, is mixed by the Spanish Americans with their chocolate, to which it gives, in their opinion, an elegant tincture, and great medicinal virtue. They suppose, that it acts as a stomachic, and febrifuge. The principal consumption of this article depends upon painters and dyers. It is sometimes used by the Dutch farmers to give a richness of

colour to their butter; and small quantities are said to be employed in the same manner in English dairies. But this commodity is an object of no great commercial importance, and the demand for it is not sufficient, to excite much attention to its cultivation.

SECTION VIII.

PIMENTO.

PIMENTO, or allspice, is one of the most elegant productions in nature, rivalling the most valuable spices of the east, and containing, as it were, the flavour and properties of many of them together, while, at the same time, it forms, (as its popular name denotes) an useful and admirable substitute for them all. The pimento-trees grow spontaneously, and in great abundance in many parts of the island, but especially in the hilly regions of the north, where they form the most delightful groves which the imagination of a poet could conceive, filling the air with fragrance, and wafting the most delicious perfumes in the gale.

The pimento-tree is purely a child of nature, and seems to mock all the labours of man, in his endeavours to extend and improve its growth; not one attempt in fifty to propagate the young plants, or to raise them from the seeds, in parts of the country where it is found growing spontaneously, having succeeded. The usual method of forming a new pimento plantation (or walk) is nothing more, than to appropriate a piece of land in the neighbourhood of a plantation already existing, or in a country where the scattered trees are found in a native state, the woods of which being cut down, the trees are suffered to remain on the ground, till they become rotten and perish. In the course of twelve months, after the first season, abundance of young pimento plants will be found growing

vigorously in all parts of the land, being probably produced from ripe berries, scattered by the birds, while the fallen trees afford them shelter and shade. At the end of two years, it will be proper to give the land a thorough cleansing, leaving such only of the pimento-trees as have a good appearance. In this manner, delightful groves will soon be formed, which, except during the first four or five years, will require very little attention.

There is not, perhaps, in the whole vegetable creation, à tree of greater beauty than the young pimento. The trunk, which is of a grey colour, smooth, and shining, and altogether destitute of bark, rises to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. It then branches out on all sides, being luxuriantly clothed with leaves of a deep green, somewhat like those of the bay. tree; and these leaves are, in the months of July and August, beautifully contrasted and relieved by an exuberance of white flowers. The leaves are equally fragrant with the fruit, and yield by distillation a delicate odoriferous oil, which is said to be sometimes sold in the apothecaries' shops for oil of cloves.. Soon after the trees are in blossom, the berries become fit for gathering. The fruit must not be allowed to remain long on the tree, as the pulp in that case, becomes moist and glutinous, and is, with difficulty cured; and when dry, it becomes black and tasteless. It is impossible, however, to prevent some of the ripe berries from mixing with the rest; and when the proportion of them is considerable, the price of the com modity is necessarily lessened.

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This fruit is gathered by the hand; and one labourer on the tree, employed in gathering the small branches, will give employment to three below (who are generally women and children) in picking the berries; and an industrious picker will fill a bag capable of holding twenty pounds weight in a