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[Page 30]
2.
Indigofera tinctoria. Linn. The Indigo Plant
In the Oldest Accounts of the East Indies, this Plant is remarked to be cultivate in Siam and Cambaja,E and it is now in Sava, Ceylon, Madagascar, and many other places. It is not a native of any part of America, but by whom or at what time it was translated from the East Indies, we have not learnt. Till the Plant came to be cultivate in America, Europe was supplied with Indigo from the East Indies, chiefly by the way of Cairo and Aleppo. In the year 1620 there was 350,000 lb weight of Indigo imported into Europe from Aleppo, and of this 200,000 lb was computed to be consumed in England, which at five Shillings the pound which was then its price, amounted to £50,000F Stg. But this valuable branch of Trade, since the cultivation of the Plant in the West Indies, has been turned into a quite different Channel, much to the advantage of Britain and its Colonies. Twenty five Acres of well cultivated Land in Jamaica produce Indigo 1000 Pounds - annually of the Currency of that IslandG so that the Indigo Trade is now fairly translated from the East to the West Indies.
3.
Oryza Sativa. Linn. Rice
The native Place of this Plant like that of Wheat Barley and Oats, which have been immemorially cultivate by Mankind, is quite uncertain, if not altogether unknown. It is certain that it is no native of the Western World, and probably draws its Origin from Æthiopia, or the Æquatorial parts of Asia. It came first to America, as is related by the Shipwreck of an East India Vessel, upon the Coast of South
E. Linscol. Ind. Orient. par. 2.8.
F. Purchas. Lib. 10. Cap. 17. p. 734
G. Brown's Nat. hist. of Jamaica p.12