Liberia •^ 



(mallow-fruits), papaw {Carica), pineapple, alligator pear (Persea 

 gratissima), sugar-cane, and coconut. More or less indigenous 

 to Africa are the yams (Dioscorea),^ pumpkins, banana and 

 plantain,^ oil palm, Colorasia arum (" coco " yam), ground-nut, 

 wild coffee, Portulaca (a kind of sour spinach), the yellow plums 

 of Spondias lutea, the sweet farinaceous fruits of Parinarium 

 macrophyltum, the sweet sop and sour sop, the alligator apple 

 derived from different species of Anona of American origin, 

 and the indigenous Anona senegalensis — the " wild peach." The 

 nuts of Coula edulis (known to the Vai as "doiia") are 

 excellent eating and very nutritious ; they are nearly the 

 size of a walnut and taste like hazel-nuts. Wild coffee 

 apparently passed unnoticed amongst the natives : at any rate 

 they took no account of it in the same way as was done 

 so markedly by the Gala aristocracy that invaded Eastern 

 Equatorial Africa. 



Onions reached the western parts of Liberia from two 

 directions : first of all brought through the Mandingo and their 

 trade with the Arabs ; secondly, and much later, they came in 

 European trading ships. Onions ^ perhaps are cultivated no- 

 where in Liberia amongst people not Muhammadan, and are 

 therefore confined to the northern and western parts of the 

 country. The Americo-Liberians during the last eighty years 

 have introduced the bread-fruit [Artocarpa) the orange, lime, 

 lemon, mango, and on the coast numerous European vegetables. 

 Beans ^ and peas of most cultivated African kinds (no doubt of 

 Oriental origin) are confined as a rule to the natives of Eastern 

 and Northern Liberia. Mr. Sim states that they are one of the 



' Though these may have come originally from Asia. There are, however, 

 wild yams, known as "jambi " by the Vai. 



• The plantain came from Asia ; the short banana from the West Indies. 

 ' See p. 901. 



♦ ''So" or "Kamma-so" in Vai. 



992 



