Plants Classified According to their Uses 



Explanatory Note 



In the next section will be found lists of plants grouped under the following 

 headings : — 



A. Edible Plants 



1. Cereals 



2. Fruits, cultivated 



3. Fruits, wild 



4. Leaves, cultivated 



5. Leaves, wild 



6. Legumes, cultivated 



7. Legumes, wild 



8. Nuts and other seeds, cultivated 



9. Nuts and other seeds, wild 



10. Oil-producing plants (mainly edible) 



1 1 . Roots and tubers, cultivated 



12. Roots and tubers, wild 



13. Plants used as stock feed 



B. Plants with a Medicinal Value 



C. Trees whose Wood Is Used for Timber or other Uses 



D. Plants Used for Fibre and Textiles 



E. Plants with Miscellaneous Uses 



1. Liyehedge plants 



2. Plants used as dyes 



3. Plants used for their gum or latex 



4. Trees which make good charcoal 



5. Fish poisons and insecticides 



6. Plants burnt for their ash 



7. Plants used as soap -substitutes 



The lists of edible plants are reasonably complete as I am interested primarily 

 in nutrition but there are many gaps, maybe important ones, in the other lists, 

 particularly is this the case in regard to dye plants and those used for stock feed. 



To remedy these shortcomings I would like to draw the attention of readers to 

 the following excellent lists drawn up by Lr. P. J. Greenway which include many 

 plants to be found in Nyasaland : — 



' ' Amani Memoirs ' ' . Dyeing and Tanning Plants in East Africa . Reprinted 



from Bull Imp. Inst, Vol. XXXIX (1941), No. 3. 

 East African Plants of proved or potential value as drug producers. 

 East African AgriculturalJournal, Jan., 1941. 

 Gums, resinous and mucilaginous plants in East Africa. 

 Supplement to East African Agricultural -Journal, April, 1941. 

 Vegetable Fibres and Flosses in East Africa. 

 East African AgriculturalJournal, Vol. XV (1950), No. 3. 



and to the following list of grasses : — 

 Jackson, G. and Wiehe, P.O. An annotated list of Nyasaland Grasses. 



(Dale) 

 Almost every plant that one comes across seems to have some medicinal value 

 to the African, so that particular list must not be taken too seriously. 



J. W. 



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