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There is only one known species, which is the 

 A. digltata, Ethiopian Sour Gourd or Monkey's 

 Bread. 



In this species the youngplants, and also most 

 of the new branches, have single spear-shaped 

 leaves towards their lower part ; hut at their ex- 

 tremities the leaves have some three, and others 

 five lobes, of the same size and form as the 

 lower, which are disposed like a hand ; these are 

 entire, ending in a point, and fall off in the win- 

 ter season. The stems are large and woody, but 

 of a soft texture, and have generally alarge swell- 

 ing near the root. According to the account 

 given by monsieur Adanson, some of these trees, 

 in Senegal and other parts of Africa, measured 

 from sixty-five to seventy-eight feet in circum- 

 ference ; but their height was not extraordinary. 

 The trunks were from twelve to fifteen feet high, 

 before they divided into different horizontal 

 branches which touched the ground at their ex- 

 tremities ; these were from forty-five to fifty-five 

 feet long, and were so large that each branch 

 was equal to a very large tree : and where the 

 water of a neighbouring river had washed away 

 the earth, so as to leave the roots of one of these 

 trees bare and open to sight, they measured one 

 hundred and ten feet long, without including 

 those parts which remained covered by the earth. 



It affords a fruit which, when fresh and eaten 

 with sugar, is said to be pleasant to the taste, 

 beiii'x of an acid flavour. 



Culture. — The method of propagating this tree 

 is by seeds, which must be procured from the 

 country where it grows naturally, for it does not 

 produce any in this climate: these should be 

 sown in pots, and plunged into a hot-bed, where, 

 in about six weeks, the plants will come up, and 

 in a short time afterwards be fit to transplant ; 

 when they should be each planted in a separate 

 pot, filled with light sandy earth, and plunged 

 into a fresh hot-bed, taking care to shade them 

 until they have taken new root ; after which they 

 should have free air admitted to them every day 

 in warm weather, but must be sparingly water- 

 ed ; for as their stems are soft, especially when 

 young, too much moisture is apt to make them 

 rot. As the plants advance in growth they are 

 to be shifted into larger pots, but must con- 

 stantly be plunged into the bark -bed, being too 

 tender to thrive in this country without this arti- 

 ficial heat : they must therefore constantly remain 

 in the stove with other tenderexolic plants. The 

 plants when young make great progress in their 

 growth where they are properly treated ; for in 

 three years many of them have been more than 

 six feet high, and have put out several lateral 

 brandies; their stems being in proportion; hut 

 after four or five years' grow th they are almost 



at a stand, their annual shoots rarely exceeding 

 two or three inches. 



These trees are only cultivated in thjs country 

 for the singularity of their appearance, and the 

 variety which they afford in the hot-house or 

 stove. 



ADENANTHERA, Bastard Flower Face, a 

 genus which contains plants of the tree, ever- 

 green, and exotic kinds ; and of Indian growth. 



It belongs to the class and order Decandria 

 Monogynia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Lomentacece. 



The characters of which are : that the calyx is 

 a one-leafed, five-toothed, very small perian- 

 thium : the corolla is five-petalled, and bell- 

 shaped : the petals are lanceolate, sessile, convex 

 inwards, and concave underneath : the stamina are 

 subulate filaments, erect, and somewhat shorter 

 than the corolla : the anthers are roundish, in- 

 cumbent, bearing a globose gland at the outer 

 tip : the pistillum is an oblong germen, gibbous 

 downwards ; style subulate, and as long as the 

 stamens : the stigma is simple : thepericarpium is 

 a long, compressed, membranaceous legume, ami 

 the seeds are very numerous, roundish, and re- 

 mote. 



There is only one species that has yet been in- 

 troduced into cultivation in this country, which 

 is the A. pavonina. 



It is a tree with prodigious decompound or 

 doubly pinnated leaves : the leaflets are ovate, ob- 

 tuse, quite entire, on very short petioles, some- 

 times alternate, sometimes opposite: the panicle 

 consists of simple, thick racemes, with the flos- 

 cules on equal pedicels. The flowers are compara- 

 tively very small, and of a yellow colour. The 

 legume is nearly afoot in length, repandat the su- 

 tures, and obscurely torulose at the seeds, smooth, 

 one-celled, two-valved ; the valves after they 

 are open being loosely and spirally twisted. The 

 seeds are few in proportion to the length of the 

 legume, obovate-rounded, convexly lens-shaped, 

 highly polished, of a shining black colour, with 

 a circular streak in the middle on each side. 

 This is a tree which in its native state grows to a 

 very large size, and the timber is in much use on 

 account of its great solidity. It flowers in Sep- 

 tember, bears fruit at the beginning and end of 

 the year, and is never without leaves. The seeds, 

 besides being eaten by the common people, are 

 of great use, on account of their equality, for 

 weights, each of them weighing four grains : 

 they also make a cement by being beaten up 

 with water and borax. 



There is a variety of this plant which has vivid 

 scarlet seeds, but which Miller found to be ex- 

 tremely slow- in its growth. 



In this country it only rises to the state of a shrub . 



