KOLA 73 



KOLA. Kola-nut is the name usually applied to the 

 fruit of a tree belonging to the Natural Order STERCU- 

 LIACEJE, and the wild as well as the cultivated forms 

 found in the Gold Coast and Ashanti are, probably, all 

 referable to the species Kola acuminata f R. The fruits or 

 nuts are borne in large pods, each of which contains a 

 variable number. The nuts themselves are irregular in 

 form, and have an inconstant number of cotyledons, or 

 seed divisions, varying from two to five. Some confusion 

 seems to have been caused owing to this variation, as 

 well as on account of the colour and shape of the nuts. 

 In some trees they are red, in others white, and others 

 again pink, and they may be elongate or nearly round. 

 These, however, are not reliable as distinguishing char- 

 acters, since nuts of the three colours have been found on 

 the same tree, and even in the same pod. Analyses and 

 commercial valuations of several varieties of kola nuts 

 from the Gold Coast are published in Selected Reports 

 from the Imperial Institute, Part III., " Foodstuffs " 

 (Colonial Reports, Misc., Cd. 5137, 1910), pp. 259-61 ; vide 

 also Bull. Imp. Inst., vols. x. (1912) and xvii. (1919). 



In the forests to the north of Kumassi large wild kola 

 trees are found, and the nuts are collected by the natives 

 inhabiting the villages in the vicinity, where they are 

 sold at from 6d. to 9d. a hundred. In other places the 

 trees are planted, commonly on the outskirts of villages, 

 especially in Akim and Kwahu. 



Kola nuts are used in tropical Africa in the same 

 manner as betel nuts are in Asia. Their taste is somewhat 

 bitter, and the mastication of fresh nuts seems to increase 

 the flow of saliva. Chewing kola nuts is resorted to by 

 the natives in order to allay thirst, or even hunger, and 

 for this reason they are in great demand among the 

 inhabitants of the Sudan, to which country they are 

 largely exported, being carried by men and donkeys in 

 caravans, which travel from the forest limits of Ashanti 

 through the Northern Territories. The donkeys, which 

 are chiefly used to transport the nuts, do not generally 

 enter the forests, but the kola nuts are packed in elon- 

 gated head-loads, in bamboo or palm-stalk frames, in 

 which form they are carried to the place where the 

 donkeys have been left. The caravans bring shea-butter, 

 guinea corn, cattle, and skins, which they exchange for kola. 



