Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Imperialism, Disciplinarity, Alchemy, Botany, Hydrography

    Notes that the 'leading naturalists' of the seventeenth century worked hard to invent a local habitation for the 'Tree of Solomon'. Observes that 'chemistry and medicine, released from the tedious but not useless apprenticeship they had served to alchymy and empiricism, set up on their own account', and consequently lost their reputation as 'curative' enterprises (348). Notes that in 1768, the French hydrographer M. Barré discovered that the palms from which Palmiers received its name produce the prized 'cocos de mer' (349).