308 AFRICAN TAMARIND FOREST. 



the Red Cotton tree (Bombax Malibaricum, Linn.) * ; but 

 it is evident that the Scriptural description would apply 

 with peculiar force to the Tamarind, whose " fruit was 

 much " and " meat for all, " for none of these other 

 trees, though all of them are splendid examples of ar- 

 borescent grandeur, produce good fruit of an edible 

 nature. The value of the tamarind in this respect is 

 well known; its fruit grows in white, hard-shelled 

 pods, four to six inches long, something like French 

 beans, which contain, when fresh, seeds and a deli- 

 cious sub-acid pulp, very grateful to the palate in hot 

 weather. They are consequently much sought after 

 by monkeys and other creatures, as well as by man. 

 Sir Samuel Baker in his " Ismailia" mentions the 

 existence of extensive forests of magnificent tamarind 

 trees within the equatorial zone near Gondokoro, on the 

 White Nile, and he mentions that there is one of these 

 trees about a mile from the station beneath which 1000 

 cattle might find shade ;f he also speaks strongly of 

 the value of its fruit to travellers: 



" By taking off the shell and pressing the tamarinds into 

 lumps of about two pounds weight " (he says) " they will keep 

 in this simple form for many months, and are invaluable in 

 cases of fever; and (used medicinally as a drink) are cooling when 

 drunk cold and sudorific when taken hot; if taken in large 

 quantities they are aperient." 



Among the great trees which we have just men- 



* There are also many groves of other trees, as for instance the 

 Mango (Magnifera Indica) in the Indian plains, which are also very 

 fine, but not to be compared in size with the great trees here mentioned 

 as of the first magnitude. The Babul {Acacia Arabica) is another very 

 fine tree often seen on the Indian plains, which grows rapidly in favour- 

 able situations and forms a striking object in the landscape. 



f Ismailia, by Sir Samuel "W". Baker, 1874, Vol. i, p. 231. 



Ibid., Vol. ii, p. 557. 



