630 JOURNAL OF THE 



one may distinguish isolated trees, run close to the shore of 

 the river, while the intermediate space, and even far up the 

 ascent, is covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, bril- 

 liantly shining in the full tropical freshness of the rainy 

 season, which is just set in. Between the shrubs, many 

 negro villages, full of closely set cottages with pointed roofs, 

 are sprinkled up to the town, and beyond it along the river. 

 The town itself has a very pleasing appearance : though laid 

 out in regular streets, the houses stand as yet singly amongst 

 trees and shrubs. Probably the aspect of the country may 

 not always be so agreeable ; we are now at the end of the 

 tornadoes when the land has been considerably invigorated 

 by rains ; a few months earlier it probably looked very dif- 

 ferent. Some turns of the mountain-road afford indeed 

 most splendid prospects. The vegetation of Sierra Leone 

 has been so often described, that my observations, limited 

 as they were by our short stay, can hardly be worth notice. 

 What may perhaps not be generally known, is the fact, that 

 Orchidacea 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 



