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BOTANY.
standing upon three-inch footstalks, and forming a beautiful cluster. These leaves are deciduous, and as they fall off, are succeeded by bunches of flowers, which grow in umbels, rising from one centre stem, of about three or four inches in length. These flowers are of the most delicate pink, shaded off to white, and of a velvety surface, the lower part of the petals being yellow. They are divided into five or six segments, and the scent of them is so delicious, that it ravishes the senses while inhaling its odour. All parts of this tree abounds in a milky, acrid juice, which drops freely upon breaking off the least part, or making the slightest incision. GUAVA TREE, psidium pomiferum, order monogynia, class icosandria, rises in the manner of a shrub, to the height of from two to twelve feet. The leaves are ovate, and of a dusky green ; the flowers consist of five segments, produced in a circular form, with numerous stamens surrounding an ovary of an oblong form. This becomes a fleshy fruit, of the shape and colour of a lemon, surmounted by a crest of small leaves. The interior of the fruit is of a rose-colour, or a pure white, containing numerous small, yellow seeds; the flavour is exquisite, and the jelly made from it surpasses the whole world of confectionary. The celebrated Sir Hans Sloane is said to have been particularly fond of it; indeed, it is a universal favourite, and cattle and birds greedily eat the fruit in its crude form. BAMBOO, bambusa arundinacea, belongs to the order
monogynia, class hexandria. It rises to a great height, sometimes fifty or sixty feet. The young stalks are almost solid, and are filled with a sweetish kind of liquid, which, as they progress in age and become hollow, falls to the bottom of the joint, where it is stopped by a woody membrane, and concretes into a kind of sugar, called tabaxir. This tabaxir is said to possess strong medicinal qualities, and was held in such esteem by the ancients, that it was often sold for its weight in silver. The bamboo is used in Antigua for spouts, fish-pots, or as posts for fences : it forms a pretty screen,