THE BAOBAB IN CEYLON AS AN EXOTIC. 303 



brittle shell five or six inches or more in length, con- 

 taining seeds and pulp, something- similar to that of the 

 Tamarind, affords a grateful and refreshing sub-acid 

 substance, highly valued by travellers, and when mixed 

 with sugar and water it makes a very pleasant drink * 

 and finally a decoction of its bark has been found to 

 possess properties similar to quinine, and in case of ne- 

 cessity has been used as a more or less effective sub- 

 stitute for the latter, f We fear, however, that we 

 have not sufficient data to speak more decidedly on this 

 point; we should therefore be glad to hear that the 

 medicinal virtues of this bark had been given a fair trial. 



Some doubts, we think it right to state, have been 

 attempted to be thrown upon the supposed great anti- 

 quity of the giant specimens of the Baobab, to which 

 we have already alluded ; and we understand that this 

 tree has been quite naturalized in the northern part of 

 Ceylon, where observations collected upon its growth 

 are said to show, that the estimates of its age given 

 by Humboldt, who speaks of it as " the oldest organic 

 monument of our planet, " are " altogether fallacious, " 

 and that " the Baobab is now well known to be a 

 very fast-growing and short-lived tree." 



On this head, we shall merely observe, that trees 

 and plants are very often known to completely change 

 their entire nature and habits, by transplantation to a 

 foreign soil and climate. Of this fact, numerous 

 instances could easily be quoted, and nowliere more 



15 Travels in the Interior of Soiith Africa, by James Chapman, 

 Vol. i, p. 62. 



f Pharmaceutical Journal^ Vol. viii, p. 89 (1848). 



Sir J. Hooker quoted in Catalogue of Trees etc. at the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, by D. Morris, Assistent-Director, published 

 at Colombo, 1879 (by Government Authority), p. 74. 



