APPENDIX, No. V. 469 
probably Glycine subterranea of Linneus, the Voandzeia of M. du Petit 
Thouars, * or Voandzou of Madagascar, where it is generally cultivated. 
Of the indigenous fruits, Anona senegalensis, Sarcocephalus, a species of 
Cream fruit, and Chrysobalanus Icaco, have been already mentioned, as trees 
common to the whole line of coast. > 
A species of Ximenia was also found by Professor Smith, who was inclined 
to consider it as not different from X. americana: its fruit, which, according 
to his account, is yellow, the size of a plum and of an acid, but not disagree- 
able taste, is in the higher parts of the river called Gangi, it may therefore 
probably be the Ogheghe of Lopez,+ by whom it is compared to a yellow 
plum, and the tree producing it said to be very generally planted. 
An Antidesma, probably like that mentioned by Afzelius, as having a fruit 
in size and taste resembling the currant, is also in the herbarium. 
It is particularly deserving of attention, that the greater part of the plants 
now enumerated, as cultivated on the banks of the Congo, and among them 
nearly the whole of the most important species, have probably been introduced 
from other parts of the world, and do not originally belong even to the continent 
of Africa. Thus it may be stated with confidence that the Maize, the Manioc 
or Cassava, and the Pine Apple, have been brought from America, and proba- 
bly the Papaw, the Capsicum, and Tobacco; while the Banana or Plantain, the 
Lime, the Orange, the Tamarind, and the Sugar Cane, may be considered as 
of Asiatic origin. 
In a former part of this essay, I have suggested that a careful investigation 
of the geographical distribution of genera might in some cases lead to the 
determination of the native country of plants at present generally dispersed. 
The value of the assistance to be derived from the source referred to, would 
amount to this; that in doubtful cases, where other arguments were equal, it 
would appear more probable that the plant in question should belong to that 
country in which all the other species of the same genus were found decidedly 
indigenous, than to that where it was the only species of the genus known to 
exist. It seems to me that this reasoning may be applied with advantage 
* Nov. Gen, Madagase. n. 17. + Flacourt Madagasc. pp. 114 et 118. 
+ Pigafetta, Hartwell’s Translat. p, 115. 
