( '56 ) 



fubjoining an account of a few particular 

 fpecies, which are remarkably fingular. 



In the memoirs of the French academy we 

 find a defcription of a very curious tree, by 

 Mr. Adanfon, called the Boabab. It is a native 

 of Senegal, and ihas been taken notice of by 

 Profper Alpinus, and other botanifts : but Mr. 

 Adanfon, who fpent feveral years in thofe 

 parts, feems to have had the beft opportunities 



of being acquainted with it. As to it's 



botanical peculiarities, which are great -, and 

 it's phyfical ufes, which are many, we enter 

 not into them. We have only to do with it's 

 external form, which is very uncommon. It 

 is fuppofed to be the largeft of nature's vege- 

 table productions the behemoth of the foreft. 

 From Mr. Adanfon's account one mould fup- 

 pofe the boabab to be a kind of natural pollard. 

 He tells us, it's trunk feldom rifes higher than 

 twelve feet ; tho it's diameter exceeds feventy. 

 From this amazing trunk fpring a number, of 

 marly branches. The center-branch rifes 

 perpendicularly fixty or feventy feet : the lateral 

 branches moot in angles lefs and lefs acute > 

 till the loweft feries form right angles with 

 the trunk ; and fo become horizontal. In 

 this direction, they ftretch fifty or fixty feet, 



till 



