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PROPERTIES AND USES OF CRESCENTIACEiE. 141 



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TOTAL. 



Dicotyledonous flowering-plants 2025 



Monocotyledonous flowering-plants 644 



Ferns and Lyeopods 



2669 

 . . . 247 



Species 2916 



i 



On the Properties and Uses of CrescentiacEjE ; by Berthold 



Seemann, Ph. D., F.L.S. 



The Crescentiacea have only so very recently been grouped together 

 and looked upon as a connected whole, that no attempt has as yet been 

 made to investigate their properties, or draw up an account of their 

 uses. I wish to supply this deficiency as far as possible, by giving, in 

 the following paragraphs, all the notes collected either during my tra- 

 vels, or from the various publications and unpublished memoranda 



that have fallen into my hands. 



All Crescentiacea may be termed ornamental plants, the fine foliage, 

 elegant flowers, and curious fruit of which have already procured for their 

 Order a fair representation in our gardens. Several furnish excellent 

 timber ; and considerable praise is given in this respect to the Kigelia 

 pinnata, De Cand., of which canoes, posts and pillars for houses, etc., are 

 made, 1 and which, not only as an urabraculiferous, but also as a sacred 

 tree, is held in high esteem in Africa. Kotschy, speaking of the king- 

 dom of Nubia, says:— "On moonlight nights the negroes celebrate 

 their religious festivals under this tree, and the Boswellia serrata, Eoxb. 

 As soon as the moon rises, they form circles under the oldest trees, 

 and begin to dance, sing, and beat large drums, whilst the women sup- 

 ply them with the slightly intoxicating Merisa, beer made of Sorghum. 

 These festivals are repeated every month, and last several nights, during 

 which time pitchers filled with Merisa are placed around the trunks, 

 and some of the same beverage is applied to the roots of the trees. As 

 symbols of special veneration, high poles made of Kigelia-wood are 

 erected before the houses of the great chiefs." 2 The genus Crescentia 

 has a fruit with a hard woody shell, which in C. Cujete, L. (C. cunei- 



1 Oswald, Memor. in Mus. Kew.— If. Bartii, in Bonpl., Jahrg. iv. p. 292. 



2 Kotschy ia Bonpl., Jahrg. iv. p. 304. 



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