Digital Grainger

An Online Edition of The Sugar-Cane (1764)

8

  • The golden shaddoc, the forbidden fruit,1
  • The white acajou, and rich sabbaca:2 [45]
  • For, where these trees their leafy banners raise
  • Aloft in air, a grey deep earth abounds,
  • Fat, light; yet, when it feels the wounding hoe,
  • Rising in clods, which ripening suns and rain
  • Resolve to crumbles, yet not pulverize: [50]
  • In this the soul of vegetation wakes,

  • Pleas’d at the planter’s call, to burst on day.

  • THRICE happy he, to whom such fields are given!
  • For him the Cane with little labour grows;

VER. 44. The golden shaddoc,] This is the largest and finest kind of orange. It is not a native of America, but was brought to the islands, from the East-Indies, by an Englishman, whose name it bears. It is of three kinds, the sweet, the sour, and the bitter; the juice of all of them is wholesome, and the rind medical. In flavour and wholesomeness, the sweet shaddoc excels the other two, and indeed every other kind of orange, except the forbidden fruit, which scarce yields to any known fruit in the four quarters of the world.

VER. 45. sabbaca:] This is the Indian name of the avocato, avocado, avigato, or, as the English corruptly call it, alligator-pear. The Spaniards in South-America name it aguacate, and under that name it is described by Ulloa.3 However, in Peru and Mexico, it is better known by the appellation of palta or palto. It is a sightly tree, of two species; the one bearing a green fruit, which is the most delicate, and the other a red, which is less esteemed, and grows chiefly in Mexico.4 When ripe, the skin peels easily off, and discovers a butyraceous,5 or rather a marrowy like substance, with greenish veins interspersed. Being eat with salt and pepper, or sugar and lime-juice, it is not only agreeable, but highly nourishing; hence Sir Hans Sloane6 used to stile it Vegetable marrow. The fruit is of the size and shape of the pear named Lady’s-thighs,7 and contains a large stone, from whence the tree is propagated. These trees bear fruit but once a year. Few strangers care for it; but, by use, soon become fond of it. The juice of the kernel marks linen with a violet-colour. Its wood is soft, and consequently of little use. The French call it Bois d’anise,8 and the tree Avocat: the botanical name is Persea.

  1. The shaddock and forbidden fruit are two kinds of citrus. The shaddock (Citrus maxima) is also known as the pomelo or pummelo. It is native to Southeast Asia and was known as the shaddock in the eighteenth century because it was supposedly brought to the Caribbean by an Englishman named Captain Shaddock. The forbidden fruit refers to species of citrus that are now virtually extinct. It is similar in taste to the orange and the shaddock, and it is closely related to the grapefruit (Higman 180). ↩︎

  2. Acajou refers to the cashew or cashewnut tree (Anacardium occidentale). Its native range is Trinidad to tropical South America. The fruit is caustic and was supposedly used by women in the eighteenth-century Caribbean as a chemical peel to remove freckles (Riddell 82-83; also see Grainger’s note in Book IV, p. 131-132). Sabbaca refers to avocado (Persea americana), which probably originated in Central America. It then spread to the Caribbean in the aftermath of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Avocado was an important part of the diets of the enslaved who had access to it: they harvested it from woodlands, versus growing it in provision grounds or gardens (Higman 158-160). ↩︎

  3. Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Giral (1716-1795) was a colonel and naval officer of the Spanish navy, as well as an explorer and scientist. He participated in a geodesic mission to the equator in Peru to measure the earth’s true shape. After the mission was completed, Ulloa co-authored with Jorge Juan the Relación histórica del viage a la América meridional (1748). ↩︎

  4. There are multiple varieties of avocado. The one that Grainger identifies as bearing a green fruit may be Persea americana var. americana, also known as the West Indian avocado. The one that Grainger identifies as growing chiefly in Mexico may be Persea americana var. drymifolia, also known as the Mexican avocado. ↩︎

  5. Of the nature of butter; buttery. ↩︎

  6. Hans Sloane (1660-1753) was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector who traveled to Jamaica in 1687 with Christopher Monck, second duke of Albemarle and newly appointed governor of Jamaica. During his stay in Jamaica, Sloane amassed an extensive collection of natural specimens, including plants, that later served as the basis for his natural history, A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica (1707, 1725). Sloane also succeeded Isaac Newton as president of the Royal Society in 1727. Upon his death, he bequeathed his extensive collections, which he had made considerable additions to after returning from Jamaica, to the British nation. These served as the founding collections of the British Museum, the British Library, and the Natural History Museum in London. ↩︎

  7. This is a pear known today as the jargonelle pear (Pyrus communis ‘Jargonelle’). It is one of the oldest pears in cultivation. ↩︎

  8. Anise wood. The leaves of some varieties of avocado give off a scent of anise when crushed. ↩︎