Page 166
An.1684
Cabbage-trees.
very big, but very high and streight. I have mea- sured one in the Bay of Campeachy 120 feet long as it lay on the ground, and there are some much higher. It has no Limbs nor Boughs, but at the head there are many Branches bigger than a mans Arm. These Branches are not covered, but flat, with sharp edges; they are 12 or 14 foot long. A- bout 2 foot from the Trunk, the Branches shoot forth small long leaves, about an inch broad, which grow so regularly on both sides of the Branch, that the whole Branch seems to be but one Leaf, made up of many small ones. The Cabbage Fruit shoots out in the midst of these Branches, from the top of the Tree: It is invested with many young Leaves or Branches, which are ready to spread abroad, as the old Branches droop and fall down. The Cabbage it self when it is taken out of the Leaves which it seems to be folded in, is as big as the small of a mans Leg, and a foot long: It is as white as Milk, and as sweet as a Nut if eaten raw; and it is very sweet and wholefom if boiled. Besides, the Cab- bage it self, there grow out between the Cabbage and the large Branches, small twigs as of a Shrub, about two foot long from their Stump. At the end of those Twigs (which grow very thick together) there hang Berries, hard and round, and as big as a Cherry. These the Tree sheds every year, and they are very good for Hogs; for this reason the Spaniards fine any who shall cut down one of these in their Woods. The body of the Tree is full of rings round it, half a foot afunder from the bottom to the top. The Bark is thin and brittle; the Wood is black and very hard; the heart or middle of the Tree is white pith. They do not climb to get the Cabbage, but cut them down; for should they ga- ther it off the Tree as it stands, yet its head being gone it soon dies. These Trees are much used by Planters in Jamaica, to board the sides of the Houses; for