The lemon and lime trees bear also very aromatic, scenting blossoms; and the fruit of both is in great abundance, large, and of an excellent quality. Of these, the latter especially, great quantities are often sent in barrels to England and America; the neighbouring English islands are likewise often supplied with them from this country, especially those of Antigua and Barbadoes.
The citrons are large, but are chiefly valuable for their rinds, as with them are made the best kind of sweetmeats.
The shaddocks are of two sorts, the one white in the inside, the other red; they are a large fruit, some of them being as big as a good sized musk-melon; but the red sort of them is most admired. The juice is contained in separate divisions of a thin, skin-like substance, as transparent as diamonds, and which have much the look of them, finely squared and polished. It has a sweet taste, tinctured with a bitter, and when the fruit is ripe is very agreeable, and reckoned a good addition to a glass of Madeira wine after dinner. The rinds of them also make good sweetmeats.
The water lemon is a fine fruit, of the shape and size of a dunghill fowl’s egg. The rind of it is of a bright yellow colour, the inside is full of small, flat seeds, covered with a juicy pulp, which has a very agreeable, musky taste. It grows on a vine, which bears a very beautiful blossom, very much resembling the passion flower; and the vine is much admired, because it affords the most delightful shade when turned over an arbour.
The granadilla is rather larger than the largest sized Lisbon lemon, and is an excellent fruit. It also grows on a vine, which bears a delightful sky-blue and yellow blossom, very fragrant, and of the same appearance as that of the water lemon, but much larger. The rind of the fruit is also of a yellow colour, but not so bright as the other; and the inside is full of seeds covered with a juicy pulp, but not of so musky a taste. The granadilla is much recommended to people in fevers, its juice being very cooling. The rind of it mixed with a little lime-juice, makes an excellent tart, nearly equal to those made with English apples; and so very refreshing is the scent of these fruits, that many people suffer them to decay on their side-boards, for the sake of their agreeable smell.
The sappadilla is of the size and make of a bergamot pear, its juice is of a gluey nature, and of a sweet taste. The tree which bears it resembles a pear-tree, and its timber is very serviceable for mills, or to make cartwheels of.
The pomegranates in Dominica are not so large as those brought to England from other countries; but they are fleshy, sweet, and good, when thoroughly ripe. They bear a delightful scarlet-coloured blossom, which, in size and make, is very like the flowers called blue-bottles; and the skin, or shell of the fruit, being boiled into a decoction, is given to persons afflicted with the flux.
The alligator pear is of the shape of an English bell pear, but is much larger. There are two sorts of this fruit, the one of a purple-coloured rind, the other of a pale green: the latter is the largest, and most esteemed. They are excellent fruit, and are greedily eaten by all kinds of animals; for even horses, who are in general not fond of fruit, will eagerly eat them. This is the fruit which is called in the West Indies “Vegetable marrow,” from its rich melting taste, and it is justly reckoned the best and most wholesome fruit of the country.