PALM OF TIMBUCTOO. 153 



me was the description given in Vogel's letter, in which it is 

 stated that the fruit is from 8-9 inches long and from 6-7 in 

 diameter, weighs about four or five pounds, has an oval shape, and 

 a fibrous husk enclosing three seeds ; that the trunk is, unlike that 

 of the Doom-palm, undivided, and the leaves fan-shaped, characters 

 which agreed with no other genus than JBorassus ; and on turning 

 to Martius' great work, I find the palm described as Borassus ? 

 ^Sthiopum, Mart. 



It was necessary to show the way and the means by which I 

 have arrived at the identification of the Palm of Timbuctoo with 

 Borassus ? JEthiopum, Mart., in order to gain the assent of bota- 

 nists to it, and I will now proceed to condense and connect all the 

 information I have collected, that we may see the sum total of 

 what is known about this palm. Like Adansonia digitata, Hy- 

 phcene Thebaica, Kigelia pinnata, and many other plants, the 

 Borassus ? jEthiopum is spread from the eastern to the western 

 shores of Africa, and has, by some, been thought to extend as far 

 as the Cape de Yerd Islands ; but Dr. Bolle, from personal obser- 

 vation, assures me that the Borassus occurring on that group in 

 isolated specimens is the old B. jlabettiformis, Linn., as correctly 

 stated by J. A. Schmidt in his Contributions to that flora (Bei- 

 trage zur Elora der Cap-Yerdischen Inseln, Heidelberg, 1852), 

 and that it was introduced by the Portuguese from the East 

 Indies. B. ? JEthiopum has been found in Nubia, on the Senegal, 

 and in the territories of the Fidaees ; Ed. Yogel observed it on the 

 Lake of Tuburi ; and Barth adds : " It is diffused over the whole 

 of Central Africa, and forms, especially on the banks of the shallow 

 water-courses, so numerous in that country, extensive forests ; at 

 any distance from such waters it is only found in isolated speci- 

 mens, and sometimes it is met with in company of the Date- and 

 the Doom-palm. It is the most characteristic tree, not only in 

 the Musgoo-country (i. e. the fertile, slightly elevated plains be- 

 tween the Shary and the eastern tributaries of the so-called Niger), 

 but also in all the southern tributary provinces of Bagirmi ; in 

 Wadai, especially on the Bat-ha, as well as in Darfur and Kordo- 

 fan, it is abundant. On the central Niger it is scarce ; in Haussa 

 very much isolated ; but on the Upper Niger, above Timbuctoo, 

 it is again plentiful, and has there been mistaken for the Cocoa- 

 nut Palm. In the language of the Haussa-people it is termed 

 ' G-igiria,' — in Kanuri, that of the Bornuese, ■ Kamelutoo,' in that 

 of Fulbe, ' Dugbi,' in that of the people of Logon, * Margum,' and 

 in the Musgoo-language, ' Uray.' " In Nubia it is known by the 



