ABSTRACT
In the harbour we were in, was very little wood, & what we saw of it was small, crabbed & rooted in the Mosses on the Rocks. We found among the Vegetables of this place, the famous Winter s-bark, which has so often been confounded with the Canella alba,1 growing at Barbadoes, Jamaica & in China; but Sir Hans Shane in his Natural History of Jamaica, vol. 2. p. 165 remarks, that the true Winter's bark differs much from the Jamaica Canella alba, & however it has been allways thought to be the same: so much is it true that prejudices cannot easily be rooted out. I have formerly tasted the Canella alba, & think it tastes even different from this bark; this has a very high degree of pungency; & the color is brown, whereas the Canella alba is white; & I believe their Virtues to be widely different tho' I cannot yet decide upon that Subject without Experiments, which I may perhaps make, when I return to England &: have time from my other avocations for doing it. I suspect this to be as adstringent as the Jesuit's bark,2 but abounding with more aromatic, &: volatile particles. It is however remarkable, that when we were at New-Zeeland we found a plant, whose Character of the Flowers & Fructification we described, & called it on account of its bitter, pungent, somewhat aromatic bark Drimys3 (from Spipus acris, pungms). The Characters of this Plant, we found coinciding with our Winter's bark,4 which has the same Qualities & nearly the same taste. Captain Winter5 found this bark very near 200 years ago in the year 1577 in the Magellanic Straits & used it as an antiscorbutic & stomachic for his crew. Sir John Narborough6 brought some home, & the people in the Dolphin Be Endeavour did the same, & some of our English most eminent Physicians have it since prescribed with good Success. It might grow & thrive well all over the northern parts of Europe: viz. Ireland, Wales, Scottland, Norway, Sweden dt Russia, perhaps even in warmer Climates for ought we know. We found only buds upon it & no flowers &
1 Canella winterana (L.) Gaertn. See p. 700 above.
