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ACACIA STIPULATA. -The unarmed acacia, flowers of a pink 

 colour, very handsome. 



ACHRAS SAPOTA. Sapotacece. This tree has been introduced 

 from Goa, it yields a fruit the size of a quince, the flesh of which 

 of a yellow colour, has an agreeable smell, and pleasant taste. 

 The fruit is generally brought to Bombay for sale in December 

 from Goa. 



ADANSONIA DIGITATA. Bombacece. BAOBAB OR MONKEY BREAD- 

 TREE. A large tree said to be found in Senegal and Abyssinia. 

 It is the largest known tree, with the trunk of an immense 

 size close to the ground, (the diameter of which is sometimes 

 as much as thirty feet) but fast tapering and of little height 

 in proportion, seldom exceeding seventy-three feet, somewhat 

 resembling a cone. Flowers, large and white, appear in May 

 and June. On the sea coast the fishermen use the fruit as floats 

 for their nets. The tree lives to a great age, whence it has 

 been called " arbre de mille ans"; and Humboldt speaks of it 

 as " the oldest organic monument of our planet." The roots 

 are of an extraordinary length ; a tree only twelve feet high 

 has been known to have a tap root many feet long. The foli- 

 age is sometimes so abundant as to conceal the vast propor- 

 tions of the trunk, and the branches spread out drooping at the 

 extremities to such a degree as entirely to conceal it ; the whole 

 forms a nearly hemispherical mass of verdure from 140 to 150 

 feet in diameter, and sixty or seventy feet high. The pulp of 

 the fruit is slightly acid and agreeable, and frequently eaten : 

 while the juice expressed from it, mixed with sugar, constitutes 

 a drink which is valued as a specific in putrid and pestilential 

 fevers. The trunk of the tree is subject to a particular disease 

 owing to the attack of a species of fungus which vegetates in 

 the woody part, and which, without changing its colour or 

 appearance, destroys life and renders the part so attacked as 

 soft as the pith of trees in general. Such trunks are hollowed 

 (by the Africans) into chambers, and within them are suspend- 

 ed the dead bodies of those who are refused the honor of burial. 

 There they become mummies, perfectly dry and well preserved, 

 and are known by the name of Guiriots. 



