Page:Miscellaneousbot01brow.djvu/173

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COM PAR ATI VE VIEW. 155

at Banza Noki: a kind of Capsicum or l^iixl Pepper, and Tobacco, were ])otli observed to ])c generally cultivated: and I Hud in the herbarium, a specimen of the Malaguetla Fejjper, or one of the species of Amomum, confounded under the name of A. Granmn-Paradlsi.

^Ir. Lockliart behevcs there was also a second kind of Ground Nut or Pea, which may be that mentioned by ?\Icrolla, under the name of Incumha} and the second sort perhaps noticed in Proyart's account of Loango/ which is probably Gli/cine suhterranea of Linnaeus, the Voandzeia [toy of M. du Petit Thenars,^ or Voandzou of Madagascar, where it is generally cultivated.^

Of the indigenous fruits, Anona Senegalensis, Sarcoce- phalus, a species of Cream fruit, and Chrysobalanus Icaco, have been already mentioned, as trees common to the whole line of coast.

A species of Ximenia was also found by Professor Smith, who was inclined to consider it as not different from X. Americana: its fruit, which, according to his account, is yellow, the size of a plum, and of an acid but not disagree- able taste, is in the higher parts of the river called Gangi, it may therefore probably be the Of/Jtc(jIte of Lopcz,^ by whom it is compared to a yellow plum, and the tree pro- ducing it said to be very generally planted.

An Aniidesma, probably like that mentioned by Afzelius, as having a fruit in size and taste resembling the currant, is also in the herbarium.

It is particularly deserving of attention, that the greater part of the plants now enmBerated, as cultivated on the banks of the Congo, and among them nearly the whole of the most important species, have probal)ly been introduced from other parts of the world, and do not originally belong even to the continent of Africa. Thus it may be stated with confidence that the Maize, the JNIanioc or Cassava, and the Pine Apple, have been brought from America, and pro- bably the Papaw, the Capsicum, and Tobacco; while the

' Piccardo Relaz. del Viar/. nel Her/, di Congo,;j. 110. = P. IS.

^ Koi\ Gen. Mndagasc. n. 17. ' Flacuurt Madapasc. pp. Hi et 118,

i Vljdfelta, IfarliccU'a Trandat, p. IL").

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