A true and faithful account of the four chiefest plantations of the English in America to wit, of Virginia, New-England, Bermudus, Barbados : with the temperature of the air, the nature of the soil, the rivers, mountains, beasts, fowls, birds, fishes, trees, plants, fruits, &c. : as also, of the natives of Virginia, and New-England, their religion, customs, fishing, hunting, &c. / collected by Samuel Clarke ...

WITHS.

There is another Plant which they call a With, which is exceeding harmful; For it pulls down all it can reach to, Canes and all other Plants.

If it comes into a Garden, it will wind about all Hearbs, and Plants that have stalks, and pull them down and destroy them.

If into an Orchard, it will climb up by the bodies of the Trees into the Branches, and draws them as it were into a purse (for out of the main stock hundred of sprigs will grow) and if any other Tree be near it will find the way to it, and pull the tops of them together, and hinder the growth of the Fruit; and cut the main stock at bottom in hope to kill it; the moisture in the Branches above will cast down a new root into the ground; yea, it will reach the highest Timber, and so en∣wrap their branches as to hinder their growth; and oftentimes it fastens one Tree to another, so that one shall hinder the growth of ano∣ther.

If you clear a passage of ten foot broad between a Wood where it grows, and your Canes over night, and come the next morning, and you shall find the way crossed all over with Withs, and got near to the Canes, and if they once get amongst them, you cannot destroy the one without the other; for wheresoever they touch ground, they get new Roots, and so creep into every place, and as they go pull all down. Yet have they some good virtues; for they serve for all uses where ropes or cords are required; as for binding their Wood and Canes into Fag∣gots, &c. And without them they were in an ill condition, having no o∣ther wood fit for hoops for their Hogsheads, Barrels, and Tubs; and they can have them of what length and bigness they please; And for such uses they are very good.

There are several kinds of these Withs, some that bear fruit some∣what bigger then the Cod of a Bean, which being divided long-wise with a Knife you shall perceive the most various and beatiful colours that can be, and so well matched, as to make up a very great beauty.

Many Canes there be in the Island,* 1.1 some large enough to hide five hundred men; the runaway Negroes oft shelter themselves in for a long time, and in the nights range abroad, and steal Pigs, Plantanes, Potatoes, and Pullen, and feast all day upon what they stole in the night: And the nights being dark, and their bodies black, escape undiscovered.* 1.2

Another sort of Withs they have that are made of the Gum of Trees, which falls from the boughs drop after drop, one hanging by another till they touch the ground, from whence they receive nourishment and grow larger: And if three or four of them come down so near as to touch one another, and the wind twists them together, they appear like ropes.

Aloes they have growing there very good, and its a beautiful Plant, and the leaves four Inches broad,* 1.3 and three quarters of an inch thick, and a foot and half long, with prickles on each side, and the last Sprout which rises in the middle, bears yellow Flowers, one above another, which are two foot higher then the Leaves.

These thick Leaves they take and cut them through, and out of them issues the Aloes, which they set in the Sun that rarifies it, and makes it fit to keep: They save the first running, for if it run too long it will be much worse.

This Plant in England we call Semper vivens. Of this is there to be be made an admirable Medicine for a Burn or Scald.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Canes.
• * 1.2

  Old withs.
• * 1.3

  Aloes.