205 
Another account of the use of the trees for storing water is 
given by Major C. Percival in his paper on Tropical Africa in 
the Geographical Journal,* and is as follows: — 
my | urther instances of ancient customs have come under 
my notice, and are worth relating here. In the fourteenth 
century, when the African historian, Ibn Batuta, made’ his 
journey across the desert from Morocco to the Niger, he relates 
how ‘water was stored in trees by the people’; this custom is 
still common in Kordofan to this day. The tree is the Baniant 
or Tebeldi tree (Adansonia digitata); it is hollowed out when 
necessary, and is in some cases mended with bricks and cement. 
he trees are filled up by the Arabs during the rains, and are a 
source of income to their owners through the sale of the water 
to travellers. The same traveller, Ibn atuta, mentions the 
keeping of bees in hollow trees for the sake of the honey. This 
is a common practice in the Sudan, where hollow trunks, stopped 
with mud, are placed in trees by the natives with a view to 
attracting the bees for the sake of their honey.’’ 
Ibn Batuta was born about the year 1808 a.p., and died about 
the year 1377. The date of the publication of his travels is some 
time between 1849 and 1377. The following extract is the pas- 
sage to which Major Percival refers in his article :— : 
‘I then proceeded from Abu Latin to Mali, the distance of 
which is a journey of four-and-twenty days, made with effort. 
The roads are safe, so I hired a guide and proceeded with three 
of my companions. These roads abound with trees, which are 
high, and so large that a caravan may shade itself under one of 
them. As I passed by one of these trees, I saw a weaver weaving 
Cloth within a cleft of its trunk. Some of these will grow so 
corrupt that the trunk will become like a well and be filled with 
the rain-water, and from this the people will drink. Sometimes 
the bees will be in these in such numbers that they will be 
filled with honey, which travellers take for their use.’’} 
Botanical Magazine for July, August and September.— 
The plants fiptred are Paeonia Willinethide: Stapf (t. 8667), 
from China; Cirrhopetalum concinnum, Ho 
ok. f., var. pur- 
purea, Ridl. (t. 8668), from the Malay Peninsula; Rhododendron 
msl. (t. 8669) 
anthemum. t len e, Rolfe (t. 8674 A.) and M. tubercu- 
losum, Rolfe (t. 8674 B, both orth of South Africa; Rhodo- 
dendron monosematum, Hutchinson (t. 8675), from tgptents 
China; Ursinia cakilefolia, DC. (t. 8676), a native of Sou 
Afric 
The true Banyan or Banian of India is Ficus po gee ma on 1829. 
