Letter 4185

I take the liberty to apply to your Honour though an entire Stranger to you, but the just Character you have of being one of the greatest vertuoso’s of this age and at the same time one of the most learnes in your proffetion gives me assurance that you will excuse my freedom upon a subject that ay be worth the attention of the Curious and which may prove a public benefit. About 18 years ago a Frenchman from St. Malo who was lately arrived from the South Sea came into this Island to traffic, be brought with him three small branches of a tree which he said was the Tree that bore the Balsam of Peru, he made a present of it to three different persons in this Island but only one branch took root and thrived, tho the twigg looked quit dryed up and not bigger than the end of a men’s little finger for the first ten years the Tree lay neglected and did not grow much but in some few years after it grew up to be pretty large and tall so as at present it is bigg enough to bear three or four Bushels of fruit Supposing it was a Pear or Apple tree & the body of the tree is about nine Inches diameter near the Root, I am apt to believe that the tree is capable of growing much larger if care had been taken to have desporled her of the(crossed out) some superfluous branches when it was growing up. This tree resembles the pear tree both in the wood and leaves; notwithstanding it is so much like a fruit tree it bears neither flower nor fruit, but produces a Bud in every eye of the branches longer than a horse bean and about half as bigg which bud is full of Balsam. It is not above three or four years that any attention was made to this tree, but some persons having gathered some of the buds to rubb upon some green wounds found it healed marvelously. last Spring, my gardener having cut himself a cross the arm below the elbow with a bill as he was lopping an apple tree he took four or five of these budds which he beat into a past applyed it to his arm and bound it up. in four Days time when he unbound it he found himself perfectly cured although the cut was three or four Inches long and very deep. great many people have found the same benefit. Though this Tree have certainly great virtues, yet I cannot affirm it to be the Peru-tree otherwise than it was given for such and that the balsam that is extracted out of these buds have the colour and Smell of the balsam of Peru as the Surgeons and Apothecaries we have here affirm. for we have no regular Physicians in this Island, but if it found to be Peru Tree I conceive that it must prove in time very advantagious in respect that it may easily be propagated for I find by experience that it comes naturally in our Soil even beyond a Pear of Apple tree for by putting into the ground any branch of it though no bigger than a quil it will come in the Same manner and almost as well as a Water-Willow. It is but two years since that I made some small attention to it, and I have raised about a Dozen of those Trees by putting these small twiggs into the ground, some that I planted the year before this last that have this year pushed branches of 16 Inches long and with due care it may become a reasonable big tree of the same substance it is certain this tree have more Sap, I suppose next Spring to try to graft it upon an Apple tree and I doe not doubt but it answer. I have been something prolix in the easy and so natural a manner in which this tree comes in this Island because I have been told that there are but too places in Europe were any of these Trees are to be found (VIZ) in the Phisick Garden att Oxford and in a Noblemen’s Garden in Holland and that there is Something out Soyle peculiar to natural to those Afratick & American Plants we have an Instance of it in our Lillys which is a flower originally brought from the East Indies which grows here in vast quantities without any care taken and propagate unacountably, which all the Art of Men have not yet been able to bring about & in England or France so the same salts or Juices in our Soyle that agree so well with out Lilly’s may have the same effect upon this balsam Tree. After I have thus given you a full account of the nature of this Tree I shall next desire you to favour me with your observations upon it and wither you think this to be the Peru Tree and for your further intelligence. I do here enclose a small twig as also you know of a great many in Europe and if those are in thriving condition so as to be propagated there and brought to a beneficial use, but a very material thing is to know how to extract the balsam. I am told it is by making an incision in the trunck of the tree, but I can hardly conceive it. for the tree doe not seem to have any balsamick Substance in the branches of it as firr tree & which makes me think that all the balsam lyes in the bud and I am the more convinced it is so in that when the bud in taken off that place dryes up * and gives afterwords not the least moisture. I think likewise that if the balsam was extracted at the root of trunck of the tree such a quantity would be had as would make it more common and that the small quantities that can be had from the bud is the reason that it comes not in large quantities as consequently is a dear comodity. but this is some wild notion of mine who have not acquired Learning nor Experience in any affairs of this nature. *I doe not mean that the branches withers or drys up but only that nothing of a (?) appears where the (?) is plucked off. I should be proud to be favoured with an answer as soon as your comodity can afford because the Original Tree being in its bloom an experiment may now be made either by incision or by plucking off the budds if needid but I know in what manner it must be done the owner of the Tree not being willing to go upon any rash experiment for fear of endangering his Tree, I beg leave to Subscribe my self. Sir Your most Humble & most Obedient Servant Carey Please to direct to Peter Carey In Guernsey to be left to Mr. Richard Haunton, Merchant In Southton If it is agreable to you I propose raise one tree for you next spring and send it in the Summer when I find it vigorous and in a thriving condition.