BAOBAB, OR CALABASH. 51 



to be, that in the countries where they grow naturally, they make 

 the principal food of the poor people, who are generally troubled 

 with these vermin. The wood of the sycamore is not subject to rot, 

 and has therefore been used for making coffins in which embalmed 

 bodies are put. Mr. Hasselquist affirms, that he saw in Egypt 

 coffins made of this kind of wood, which had been preserved sound 

 for 2O0O years. 



[Hasselquist. Gregory. Editor, 



SECTION IV. 



Baobab, or Calabash. 

 Adansonia. Linn. 



This is found chiefly on the banks of the Senegal, and has so 

 near a resemblance in its enormous extent and valuable properties 

 to the Banian, that we shall only glance at a few of its peculiar 

 properties. It has a trunk of a prodigious size, spreads its branches 

 wide enough to afford protection to a whole village of inhabitants, 

 and is supposed to possess a greater longevity than any other tree 

 whatever, being calculated to require not less than a thousand 

 years before it attains maturity. 



We know of but one species, though Isert tells us there are 

 many, the Adansonia digitata, so called from the finger-like divi- 

 sions of its leaves. It bears a gourd containing a very pleasant 

 sub-acid fruit, which forms a considerable part of the food of the 

 negro-tribes : who like the Iudians, with respect to the Banian, ob- 

 serve it with a kind of religious veneration ; and watch devotionally 

 for the opening of its flowers at sun-rise. It adorns with its ver- 

 dant and compressed vaults and arches the top of Cape Verd, which 

 is hence said to take its name; and its hollow trunk sometimes 

 serves for a temple or hall to a numerous assembly of natives. It 

 is not however lofty. The one observed by Golberry was not more 

 than twenty-four feet in height, though thirty-four in diameter, or 

 a hundred and four in circumference. Darwin asserts that it 

 sometimes rises to seventy feet in height, but we know of no in- 

 stance of such a growth. 



[Isert, Reise nach Guinea, Epitor. 



E 2 



