The roots, again, are of a most extraordinary length, having numerous ramifications. In a
tree, whose trunk was only ten or twelve feet high, with a trunk seventy-seven feet in circumference,
Adanson has determined the main branch, or tap-root, to be one hundred and ten feet
long. A figure of the whole tree may be seen in a beautiful vignette, at p. 141, of Lord Macartney’s
Embassy to China, drawn from a fine specimen in St. Jago, one of the Cape de Verd
islands. The foliage there, indeed, is not so abundant as to conceal the vast proportion of the
trunk, but it often happens, that the leaves are so numerous, and the branches spread out,
drooping at the extremities, to such a degree, that the trunk is almost entirely concealed, and
the whole forms a nearly hemispherical mass of verdure, from one hundred and forty to one
hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and sixty or seventy feet high.
The wood is pale coloured, light, and soft, so that, in Abyssinia, the wild bees perforate it,
for the purpose of lodging their honey in the holes, which honey is reckoned the best in the
country. I know not that the wood itself is applied to any particular purpose, but the Negroes
on the eastern coast of Africa employ the trunks in a certain state to a very extraordinary purpose.
The tree is subject to a particular disease, owing to the attack of a species of Fungus,
which vegetates in the woody part, and which, without changing its colour or appearance,
destroys life, and renders the part so attacked, as soft as the pith of trees in general. Such
trunks are then hollowed into chambers, and within them are suspended the dead bodies of
those who are refused the honor of burial. There they become mummies, perfectly dry and
well preserved, without any further preparation or embalmment, and are known by the name of
guiriots.
This plant, like all of the neighbouring order of M alvaceae, is emollient and mucilaginous
in all its parts. The leaves dried and reduced to powder constitute lalo3 a favourite article with
the natives, and which they mix daily with their food, for the purpose of diminishing the excessive
perspiration to which they are subject in those climates, and even the Europeans find it
serviceable in cases of diarrhaea, fevers, and other maladies.
The fruit is, perhaps, the most useful part of the tree. Its pulp is slightly acid and agreeable,
and frequently eaten; while the juice is expressed from it, mixed with sugar, and constitutes
a drink which is valued as a specific in putrid and pestilential fevers. Owing to these
circumstances, the fruit forms an article of commerce.* The Mandingos convey it to the
eastern and more southern districts of Africa, and through the mecKum of the Arabs, it reaches
Morocco and even Egypt. If the fruit be decayed or injured, it is burned: the leys are boiled
with rancid oil of palm, and the negroes use it instead of soap.”
I shall now conclude these, I fear, rather too extended remarks on Adansonia, which the
interest of the subject has led me into, by extracting from the Flora Senegambise, a short
account of its mode of growth. - “ I t is surprising that in a country so hot and dry as the western
coast of Africa, the Boabab can acquire such enormous .dimensions. Individuals are often
found in Senegal and Gambia having a circumference of even 60 or 80 feet, without however
attaining a height in proportion to such thickness. These dimensions diminish in proportion as
they recede from the sea coast. This singular vegetable seems to increase in diameter without
our being able to attribute this effect solely to the influence of the leaves, since it is deprived of
them during nearly two-thirds of the year. The herbaceous envelope, of a shining green colour,
by which the shapeless mass of its trunk is covered is very thin but full of life. From the
slightest wound we can make in it, there bursts forth an abundant stream of liquid, a kind of
nutritive sap, coming from the herbacious envelope which answers the same purpose as leaves,
and which, so to speak, has been the principal focus of vegetable life. In a word the Baobab
has, a vegetation analogous to that of certain Cacti, which draw their nourishment not from the
soil but from the air by their whole surface.”
The Durian so much esteemed to the eastward is said by Rumphius, to be of a very heating
quality; and liable to excite inflammatory derangements of the system. Whether these
statements are in accordance with the results of modern experience is more than I can tell, but
I rather suspect not, as all who have been able to reconcile themselves to the odour of the fruit
* In B owdich’s a c c o u n t o f B a n jo le . it is m en tio n e d th a t th is fru it possesses a n ag re ea b ly a cid flavour, a n d , b e in g very a b u n d
a n t, i t forms a p rin c ip a l a rtic le o f food am o n g th e n a tiv es, who se ason m an y o f th e ir dish e s with it, e sp ec ially a k in d o f g ru el
ma d e o f corn, a n d c alled Rooy. M r. Bowdicn f u rth e r o bserves, th a t th is tre e loses its leaves before th e p e rio d ic a l ra in s come on.
speak of it in the highest terms, and. seem to think it not less wholesome than grateful to the
palate. It is remarkable that it has never been introduced on this side of the Bay, as it certainly
seems a most desirable plant to have among us.*
R emarks on the G enera. Three indigenous genera only of this order are found in the
Indian Peninsula, and are described in our Prodromus under the names of Helicteres, Bombax,
and Eriodendron. These names Professor Endlicher of Vienna, in the course of a revision of
the order has seen reason to change. The species, which originally formed the types of these
genera are all of American origin, and, on being carefully compared with the Indian
species which have been associated with them, were found to differ so much, as to render
necessary the separation of the Asiatic from the American forms. Under such circumstances,
it was incumbent on him in separating the former as new genera, to' retain the old
names with the American forms, to which they had been originally assigned, and give new names
to the Indian ones. Whether the new genera recommended by him will be adopted by other
Botanists is still uncertain, but that the readers of these remarks may have an opportunity of
judging for themselves of the propriety of the changes, I append, for comparison, the generic
characters of both the American and Indian genera, but without for the present, offering any
opinion of my own on the propriety or otherwise of the change, as I have not yet had an opportunity
of satisfying myself on that point by a comparison of the plants themselves, and
written characters do not always convey, to the mind, a very clear or satisfactory idea of the
differences .which may actually exist, and be very apparent to the eye, though not easily described.
In addition to the species here figured there is another, or a very distinct variety found at
Courtallum, approaching in some respects to Walljch’s B. insigne, in the large size of its
flowers. It differs, I think, specifically from B. Malabarica, in having the petals linear, nearly
twice the length of the stamens ; the stamens many times more numerous, the filaments
much more slender and filiform, and the anthers small in proportion. The flowers being fully
twice as large as those here represented, and the relative proportion in the size of the parts
being changed, added to the capsule being hard and woody, leaves scarcely a doubt on
my mind of its being distinct, but notwithstanding, I refrain for the present from naming
it as such, owing to my specimens being imperfect, and not sufficient to admit of my adequately
characterizing the species from them.
H elicteres L. Calyx tuhulosus bilabiatim 5 fidus. Petala ljgulata, ungue appendiculata,
.bilabiatim disposita. Staminum tubus carpophoro connatus, longe exsertus. Filamenta fertilia
5-MjpO; sterilia 5 petaloidea, paribus fertiliurn staminum opposita. Ovarium longe stipitatum
e carpellis 5 (cum staminibus sterilibus alternantibus). Styli contorti. Stigmata obsoleta.
Fructus e carpellis 5 distinctis, spiratim contortis 1. rectis, polyspermus. Semina angulata,
albuminosa. Cotyledones convolute.—Frutices prascipue Americae tropicae, foliis latecordatis
crengto-dentatis dense tomentosjs, floribus cymosis terminalibus, albis vel rubro-fuscis.
I sora. Calyx cjavato-cjampanijlatus subinflatus 5 fide bilabiatus, labio superiore producto.
Petala ligulata bilabiatim. disposita, 3 inferiora exappendiculata, superiora 2 appendiculo unilateral!
maximo. Staminum tubus carpophoro connatus, longe-exsertus in urceolum ovarium
cingentem ampliatus, filamentis sterilibus 5 liguliformibus minutis . . . . capsulae 5 in spiram
arete contortse. Species indicae. Is. corylifolia (Hel. Isora L.). Is. grewiaefolia (Hel.
grewiaefolia Cand.),
E riodendron DC. C&lyx irregulariter sub 5 fidus, Petala erecta. Tubus stamineus
inedio ampliatus apice in 5 crura divisus, antherosomata bilocularia longitudinaliter adnata
recta gerentia. Stigmata connexa unicum capituliforme mentientia. Capsula lignosa 5 locu-
* Since th e above was w ritte n 1 have le a rn ed from G en e ra l Bishop th a t th e re a re tw o tre e s g row in g in T rich in o p o ly , a n d one
of them has twice b o rn e a sin g le fru it, b u t.o n n e ith e r occasion b ro u g h t it to m a tu rity ; th e first b lig h ted o n th e tre e , th e second
was blown down a fte r it had a tta in e d a c on sid erab le size.