VOL. XIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 201 



the figures of the parts of those animals, to conclude these fossils must have 

 come from the same original. 



One of these fossils I carried home with me, to compare with the tongue of a 

 fish I had observed in Jamaica ; and on setting it and the fossil together, and 

 comparing them with another of the same tongues in pieces, which I saw in Mr. 

 Charleton's most useful and admirable collection of natural curiosities, we found 

 a perfect agreement of the tongue that was dug up in Maryland, and that taken 

 from the fish in our collections. It was the opinion of some, that these bones 

 were the pieces of a petrified mushroom, the lamellae of which this fossil in some 

 manner resembled. A part of one of the joints of this tongue was dug up in 

 England, and given to Mr. Charleton, by Mr. Lhwid of Oxford, by the name 

 of siliquastrum subnigrum pectinatum maximum. 



A Catalogue of some Guinea-Plants, with their Native Names and Plrtues ; sent 

 to James Petiver, Apothecary, and F. R. S. ; with his Remarks on them. 

 Communicated in a Letter to Dr. Hans Sloane. N° 232, p. 677- 



These plants, with their names and virtues. Dr. Sloane received from the 

 Rev. Mr. John Smyth, while he was minister to the Royal African Company in 

 the English factory at Cape Corse, in Guinea. But there is nothing in this 

 catalogue sufficiently interesting to be reprinted. 



Observations at Cape Corse. By Mr. J. Hillier. N° 232, p. 687. 



I thought the custom of destroying slaves at the death of great people had 

 been abolished, and I was so informed ; but we have lately seen that it is not ; 

 for Oct. 3, l687, died Ahen Penin Ashrive, King of Fetou, here at Cape 

 Corse, where he had been long sick ; the fetishers had done all they could to 

 save his life, but to no purpose, their physic scarcely extending to any thing 

 but the flux, and what we call the French disease ; his disorder was a consump- 

 tion and an asthma of a long continuance : so they had recourse to their reli- 

 ligion, and according to the rules of that, they made several pellets of clay, which 

 they ranged in order in his room, all besprinkled with blood ; besides they eat 

 several muttons to his good health. But all was of no efficacy, so the man died, 

 having delivered his sword to the Dey, who in the interregnum was to be the 

 principal man, for the kingdom is elective : he also appointed one of his wives, 

 whom he thought worthy of that fatal honour, to accompany him to the other 

 world, who was accordingly buried with him the next day. Presently after, the 

 more considerable people sent in such persons as they had a mind to murder in 

 honour of the king : how many there were is not easy to say, the highest ac- 



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