VOYAGE TO THE NIGER. 31 
as they were by our short stay, can hardly be worth notice. 
What may perhaps not be generally known, is the fact, that 
Orchidacee occur here frequently : at Mr. Whitfield’s I saw 
a collection of more than thirty. species, which he means to 
take to Europe in a living state. The edible fruits, so inte- 
resting through Sabine’s publication of Brown’s Remarks 
in Don’s Collection, were not just now to be met with, and it 
requires, in fact, more local knowledge than can be acquired 
in a few days, to get them together. I inquired a great deal 
after the somewhat mystical Cream-fruit of Afzelius. "The 
name was unknown; and several persons, even Mr. Whit- 
field, guessed from my description, that it must be a fruit 
they called Bird-lime; of which the said gentleman gave me 
a dried, nearly ripe specimen. It is not eaten readily by any 
body. - Although there are here discrepancies, I must after 
all believe, that we have yet to learn whether Cream-fruit, 
Bird-lime and Don’s sweet Pishanin are, or are not, iden- 
tical, The Oil Palm (Elais Guineensis) is the only one 
occurring often near Free-Town. It is monoecious; the 
male flower growing above the female. It produces fruit 
(perhaps not always) when only 7 feet high; and before the 
lowest ribs have decayed. I also saw a Leguminosa, belong- 
ing, as far as I could judge from the fruit, to the genus 
Afzelia, but if so, it would form a separate division. Though 
a rich flora, it was not, either near the town or in the 
mountains, by any means so luxuriant as the descriptions had 
led me to expect. The soil is a close clay, impregnated with 
iron, and cannot therefore be fertile. It having been soon 
ascertained that the land near the town could not yield so ; 
much as had been expected, the attention of the earlier 
emigrants was already directed towards other parts of the 
vicinity; I know not with what success. It is singular, 
that this thickly peopled colony should not produce any 
thing fit for exportation: the trade in teak or camwood 
‘Seems only a waste of the rich endowments of nature. This 
surely is a matter worth consideration. The Africans, col- 
lected here in such multitudes, furnish abundant and cheap 
