Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

2b2 FAMILY HERBAL
feet high, and on the upper part is covered with
a sort of mealy powder, of a bluish colour. The
leaves are large, and very beautiful. They are
somewhat like those of the vine, but they are divided
deeply into seven or more parts, which are
also sharply serrated at the edges, and they stand
upon long foot stalks, which are not inserted at
the edge, but in the middle of the leaf. The flow-
ers are small : they grow in bunches toward the top
of the plant. The seeds grow upon the trunk of
the plant in different places : three are contained in
husks, and they have over them severally a hard
shell.
The kernels of these seeds are the part used, but
they are very little regarded at present. There
used to be three or four kinds of them kept by
the
druggists, under different names, but nobody
violent in their
now minds them : (hey are very
and downwards,
operation, which is both upwards
and have been given in dropsies and rheumatisms.
Oily Palm Tree. Palma oleosa.
A very beautiful tree, native of Africa and
America. It crows moderately hmh. The trunk
is naked all the way to the top, where the leaves
grow in vast quantities : they are long
and nar-
row, and the footstalks on which they stand are
prickly. The flowers are small and mossy. The
fruit is of the bigness of a plumb, oblong, and
flatfish, and is covered over with a tough and fibrous
coat. From this fruit the natives express what they
call palm oil : it is a substance of the consistence
of butter, and of a pleasant, though very little
taste.
The oil
They
is the only produce of the tree used :
eat it upon the spot, but we it apply extcr-