The tamarind trees grow here in great perfection, and the fruit of them is excellent, being much used in medicine, for which purpose they are very valuable, and the timber of the trees is very serviceable.
English and American apple trees grow well in Dominica, and several of them are on different plantations in the island; particularly on those of Alexander Stewart, Esq. William Urban Bueé, merchant, and on some French estates, where the trees bear a juicy, well-flavoured apple.
Also strawberries, rasberries, and several other European and American fruits grow here in great perfection; proving, beyond a doubt, that was a proper attention to be paid to the further settlement of this island, there is hardly any description of foreign fruits but what would flourish in this country.
The gardens produce the black and green muscadine grapes, figs, musk melons, water melons, cucumbers, gourds, pompions, English, American, and West India beans and peas, cabbages, carrots, turnips, parsnips, lettuces, radishes, horse-radish, asparagus, artichokes, spinage, celery, onions, eschallots, thyme, sage, mint, rue, balm, parsley, and all sorts of vegetables and herbs, all which grow in this island in great perfection.
The flowers are, roses, tuberoses, pinks, jessamines, and several other sorts peculiar to the island; which latter grow spontaneously; some are very curious, and most of them have a very odoriferous smell.
The sensitive plant grows there spontaneously, and in great abundance; also the ipecacuanha, and the latter is often fatal to horses, cattle, and sheep, who chance to bite of it in feeding; for which reason it is necessary to eradicate it as much as possible out of the pastures. This plant bears very beautiful, scarlet and yellow flowers, which, with the leaves, are put into boiling water, and given as an emetic; but, without great experience, this method of using them is dangerous, and has proved fatal to many, who imprudently took too great a quantity of the infusion; for which reason great care should be taken in using it.