ARBORICULTURAL NOTES FROM PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA. I95 
Africa. Cassipourea verticillata is another common shrub. A 
good trade is done with the south of Europe ports in mangrove 
bark, but the unsystematic way in which it is handled cannot 
leave much margin of profit. I have seen it sent away in 
gunny bags—no attempt being made to reduce the cost of 
freight by baling. The mangrove bark is a poor tanning 
substance, producing a yellow dye. It contains too much of a 
pigment for leather preserving. I have often wondered why 
foresters at home waste so much time and trouble in laying out 
the oak-bark in fine leaves, when it has all to be reduced to a 
powder in the first process of manipulation. As a cinchona 
planter, I did the same thing, until I visited a quinine factory 
and saw the bark reduced to dust. From that date I spoke- 
shaved the bark off my cinchona trees, getting the same results 
at half the cost, and, best of all, I saved my trees. The Indian 
Government are very wise to still go on producing quinine from 
the cinchona tree. The chemist came in with his production, 
and killed out the sound, wholesome fever reliever of the planter. 
But what is the quinine the public are now served with? A 
poisonous chemical extract, with little of the properties of the 
genuine article. 
The cover of the islands consists mostly of the trees and 
bushes mentioned. Near native huts there are cocoanut palms 
(Cocos nucifera) ; and they have also the cashewnut (Anacardium 
occidentale, L.) and mango (AZangifera indica, L.), both of which 
were introduced from India by the trading Mohammedans about 
the same time that the Portuguese first visited this coast. It is 
only within the last few years, however, that the cocoanut palm 
has come to be extensively cultivated, and at a few places only 
are old trees to be found. The history and value of this tree 
would alone occupy a long article. The cashewnut is a 
favourite tree with the Kaffirs. From the fruit they obtain a 
highly intoxicating spirit, and while that is in season (from 
October to December) they do not want work, for men, women, 
and children live in a state of intoxication. 
The great characteristic tree of the region, which can be seen 
from some distance from land, and always on the highest points, 
with an ugly blunt head and branches, and for nine months of 
the year leafless, is the baobab (Adansonia digitata). Many of 
these trees can be found 80 feet in girth. Its wood is soft and 
spongy, but the acid matter surrounding the seeds, which are 
