Jujube Tree.

Botanical name: 

Zizyphus.

A tree of the bigness of our plum trees, and not unlike to them in shape. The bark is grey on the trunk, and brown on the branches. The leaves are moderately large, and each is composed of a number of smaller ones, set on each side of a middle rib, but not opposite to one another, and with an odd one at the end: these are oblong, obtuse, and serrated round the edges, and the odd leaf at the end is the largest and longest. The flowers are small and yellow. The fruit is oval, and of the bigness of a moderate plum; it has a soft substance on the outside, and a stone within, which is large and long, and pointed at both ends.

The fruit is used. It was at one time brought over to us dried, but we see little of it now; it was esteemed balsamic, and was given to cure coughs, and to work by urine.


The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill.