DIMENSIONS OF GREAT BAOBABS. 301 



travellers that a young Baobab is rarely or never seen. 

 It may be that this is due to want of observation, or 

 because these small specimens are not at first sight 

 easily recognized as of the same species, for in the 

 collection of Economic Plants at Kew Gardens, we 

 have been informed, no difficulty has been found in 

 propagating it. * The remarkable feature about the old 

 tree is, however, its short gouty stem, entirely dis- 

 proportioned in its immense girth to its height, some- 

 times more resembling a huge cask than a tree trunk ; 

 while its branches, which seem to form a mere tuft at 

 the top of some of the older trees, are few in number, 

 yet massive as its stem ; and of course, for reasons 

 already pointed out, the tree is rarely seen in leaf. 

 The leaves themselves, however, when in being, are 

 " digitated " like the fingers on a man's hand, and 

 somewhat resembling those of the horse chestnut, while 

 its wood is said to be soft, and not much firmer than 

 cork, and succulent as a carrot. " f 



Sir Samuel Baker gives an interesting description of 

 some of these grand trees, growing along the course of 

 the Settite River of Abyssinia, in a wild and rugged 

 district, where the scenery was "just like an English 

 park, with no larger timber than thorn trees," save 

 and except these great baobabs and the Tamarind 

 (Tamarindus Indicd), another of the splendid vegetable 

 treasures peculiar to this region, concerning which we 

 must find time presently to add a few details. Sir Samuel 

 Baker measured one of these Baobabs, which he says 



* Count D'Escayrac de Lauture, however, states that small seedling 

 Baobabs are common in Kordofan, but that it was most difficult to- 

 form any idea of their age. See his Le Desert et le Soudan, p. 73. 



f The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, by Sir Samuel W. Baker v 

 1867, pp. 3556. 



