Capsicum annuum, or Guinea pepper is likewise planted in gardens. When the [[75]]fruit is ripe it is almost entirely red, it is put to a roasted or boiled piece of meat, a little of it being strewed upon it, or mixed with the broth. Besides this, cucumbers are pickled with it. Or the pods are pounded whilst they are yet tender, and being mixed with salt are preserved in a bottle; and this spice is strewed over roasted or boiled meat, or fried fish, and gives them a very fine taste. But the fruit by itself is as biting as common pepper.
This country contains many species of the plant, which Dr. Linnæus calls Rhus, and the most common is the Rhus foliis pinnatis serratis lanceolates retrinque nudis, or the Rhus glabra. The English call this plant Sumach. But the Swedes here, have no particular name for it, and therefore make use of the English name. Its berries or fruits are red. They are made use of for dying, and afford a colour like their own. This tree is like a weed in this country, for if a corn-field is left uncultivated for some few years together, it grows on it in plenty, since the berries are spread every where by the birds. And when the ground is to be ploughed the roots stop the plough very much. The fruit stays on the shrub during the whole winter. But the leaves drop very early in autumn, after they are [[76]]turned reddish, like those of our Swedish mountain ash. The branches boiled with the berries afford a black ink like tincture. The boys eat the berries, there being no danger of falling sick after the repast; but they are very sour. They seldom grow above three yards high. On cutting the stem, it appears that it contains nothing but pith. I have cut several in this manner, and found that some were ten years old; but that most of them were above one year old. When the cut is made, a yellow juice comes out between the bark and the wood. One or two of the most outward circles are white, but the innermost are of a yellowish green. It is easy to distinguish them one from another. They contain a very plentiful pith, the diameter of which is frequently half an inch, and sometimes more. It is brown, and so loose that it is easily pushed out by a little stick, in the same manner as the pith of the elder tree, raspberry and blackberry bushes. This sumach grows near the enclosures, round the corn-fields, but especially on fallow ground. The wood seemed to burn well, and made no great crackling in the fire.
September the 20th. In the morning we walked in the fields and woods near the [[77]]town, partly for gathering seeds, and partly for gathering plants for my herbal, which was our principal occupation; and in the autumn of this year, we sent part of our collection to England and Sweden.
A species of Rhus, which was frequent in the marshes here was called the poison tree by both English and Swedes. Some of the former gave it the name of swamp-sumach, and my country-men gave it the same name. Dr. Linnæus in his botanical works calls it Rhus Vernix. Sp. pl. 1. 380. Flora Virgin. 45. An incision being made into the tree, a whitish yellow juice, which has a nauseous smell, comes out between the bark and the wood. This tree is not known for its good qualities, but greatly so for the effect of its poison, which though it is noxious to some people, yet does not in the least affect others. And therefore one person can handle the tree as he pleases, cut it, peel off its bark, rub it, or the wood upon his hands, smell at it, spread the juice upon his skin, and make more experiments, with no inconvenience to himself; another person on the contrary dares not meddle with the tree, while its wood is fresh, nor can he venture to touch a hand which has handled it, nor even to expose himself to the smoak of a fire which is made with this wood, without soon [[78]]feeling its bad effects; for the face, the hands, and frequently the whole body swells excessively, and is affected with a very accute pain. Sometimes bladders or blisters arise in great plenty, and make the sick person look as if he was infected by a leprosy. In some people the external thin skin, or cuticle, peels of in a few days, as is the case when a person has scalded or burnt any part of his body. Nay, the nature of some persons will not even allow them to approach the place where the tree grows, or to expose themselves to the wind, when it carries the effluvia or exhalations of this tree with it, without letting them feel the inconvenience of the swelling, which I have just now described. Their eyes are sometimes shut up for one, or two and more days together by the swelling. I know two brothers, one of whom could without danger handle this tree in what manner he pleased, whereas the other could not come near it without swelling. A person sometimes does not know that he has touched this poisonous plant, or that he has been near it, before his face and hands shews it by their swelling. I have known old people who were more afraid of this tree than of a viper; and I was acquainted with a person who merely by the noxious exhalations of it [[79]]was swelled to such a degree, that he was as stiff as a log of wood, and could only be turned about in sheets.
On relating in the winter of the year 1750, the poisonous qualities of the swamp sumach to my Yungstrœm, who attended me on my travels, he only laughed, and looked upon the whole as a fable, in which opinion he was confirmed by his having often handled the tree the autumn before, cut many branches of it, which he had carried for a good while in his hand in order to preserve its seeds, and put many into the herbals, and all this, without feeling the least inconvenience. He would therefore, being a kind of philosopher in his own way, take nothing for granted of which he had no sufficient proofs, especially as he had his own experience in the summer of the year 1749, to support the contrary opinion. But in the next summer his system of philosophy was overturned. For his hands swelled and he felt a violent pain, and itching in his eyes as soon as he touched the tree, and this inconvenience not only attended him when he meddled with this kind of sumach, but even when he had any thing to do with the Rhus radicans, or that species of sumach which climbs along the trees, and is not by far so [[80]]poisonous as the former. By this adventure he was so convinced of the power of the poison tree, that I could not easily persuade him to gather more seeds of it for me. But he not only felt the noxious effects of it in summer when he was very hot, but even in winter when both he and the wood were cold. Hence it appears that though a person be secured against the power of this poison for some time, yet that in length of time he may be affected with it as well, as people of a weaker constitution.
I have likewise tried experiments of every kind with the poison tree on myself. I have spread its juice upon my hands, cut and broke its branches, peeled off its bark, and rubbed my hands with it, smelt at it, carried pieces of it in my bare hands, and repeated all this frequently, without feeling the baneful effects so commonly annexed to it; but I however once experienced that the poison of the sumach was not entirely without effect upon me. On a hot day in summer, as I was in some degree of perspiration, I cut a branch of the tree, and carried it in my hand for about half an hour together, and smelt at it now and then. I felt no effects from it, till in the evening. But next morning I awoke with a violent itching of my eye-lids, and the [[81]]parts thereabouts, and this was so painful, that I could hardly keep my hands from it. It ceased after I had washed my eyes for a while, with very cold water. But my eye-lids were very stiff all that day. At night the itching returned, and in the morning as I awoke, I felt it as ill as the morning before, and I used the same remedy against it. However it continued almost for a whole week together, and my eyes were very red, and my eye-lids were with difficulty moved, during all that time. My pain ceased entirely afterwards. About the same time, I had spread the juice of the tree very thick upon my hand. Three days after they occasioned blisters, which soon went off without affecting me much. I have not experienced any thing more of the effects of this plant, nor had I any desire so to do. However I found that it could not exert its power upon me, when I was not perspiring.
I have never heard that the poison of this Sumach has been mortal; but the pain ceases after a few days duration. The natives formerly made their flutes of this tree, because it has a great deal of pith. Some people assured me, that a person suffering from its noisome exhalations, would easily recover by spreading a mixture of the wood, [[82]]burnt to charcoal, and hog’s lard, upon the swelled parts. Some asserted that they had really tried this remedy. In some places this tree is rooted out on purpose, that its poison may not affect the workmen.
I received to day, several curiosities belonging to the mineral kingdom, which were collected in the country. The following were those which were most worth attention. The first was a white, and quite transparent crystal.[10] Many of this kind are found in Pensylvania, in several kinds of stone, especially in a pale-grey limestone. The pieces are of the thickness and length of the little finger, and commonly as transparent as possible. But I have likewise got crystals here, of the length of a foot, and of the thickness of a middle-sized man’s leg. They were not so transparent as the former.
The cubic Pyrites of Bishop Browallius,[11] was of a very regular texture. But its cubes were different in size, for in some of [[83]]the cubes, the planes of the sides only amounted to a quarter of an inch, but in the biggest cubes, they were full two inches. Some were exceedingly glittering, so that it was very easy to be perceived that they consisted of sulphureous pyrites. But in some one or two sides only, glittered so well, and the others were dark-brown. Yet most of these marcasites had this same colour on all the sides. On breaking them they shewed the pure pyrites. They are found near Lancaster in this province, and sometimes lie quite above the ground; but commonly they are found at the depth of eight feet or more from the surface of the ground, on digging wells and the like. Mr. Hesselius had several pieces of this kind of stone, which he made use of in his work. He first burnt them, then pounded or ground them to a powder, and at last rubbed them still finer in the usual way, and this afforded him a fine reddish-brown colour.
Few black pebbles are found in this province, which on the other hand yields many kinds of marble, especially a white one, with pale-grey bluish spots, which is found in a quarry at the distance of a few English miles from Philadelphia, and is very good [[84]]for working, though it is not one of the finest kind of marbles. They make many tombstones and tables, enchase chimneys and doors, floors of marble flags in the rooms, and the like of this kind of marble. A quantity of this commodity is shipped to different parts of America.