242 CEREALS IX SENEGAL 



other hand, there are numerous Graminese adapted to hot regions, 

 which the natives cultivate for their uses. Among others I may 

 name the Tocussa and the Coracan (Eleasine Tocussa and E. Coro- 

 cana), with their curved digitate spikes and productive seeds; the 

 Pennicellaria spicata, or Guinea Corn, a very tall grass, somewhat 

 resembling maize, whose long cylindrical culms or blades bear each a 

 multitude of white round grains, which, ground into meal, form very 

 savoury cakes, as you may read in Mungo Park's Travels; and the 

 Durra, Doura, Indian Millet, or Sorgho Grass (Sorghum), a coarse, 

 strong", broad-leaved grass, four to eight feet high, with a round grain 

 a little larger than mustard seed; it is the principal corn-plant of 

 Africa, and exceedingly nutritious, the natives employing it in the 

 preparation of a favourite dish named Kouskoussou. 



The cereals most widely cultivated in Senegal include the Colonial 

 Millet (Oplismenus colonus); the Abyssinian Meadow Grass (Poa 

 Abyssinica), called " Teff " in Abyssinia, whose seeds are used for 

 making bread, and whose blades yield an abundant herbage; Rice 

 (Oryza sativa), and different varieties of maize. Leguminous plants 

 appear wanting in Senegal. Their absence is probably due to the 

 same causes as those which we have indicated as affecting the growth 

 of barley. Cabbages and the different salads grow, in fact, with a 

 rapidity which prevents them from maturing; they flower in two or 

 three weeks after being sown. The inhabitants consequently resort 

 to those alimentary species which belong to hot countries, and which 

 can only be obtained in Europe at an enormous expense and by 

 artificial means. Among the plants with edible roots are various 

 kinds of Yams (such as the Dioscorea alata); Batatas (Convolvulus 

 Batatas') ; and the Manioc or Manihot (Jatropha Manihot),* better 

 known as Cassava, which, although in itself a deadly poison, is easily 

 deprived by heat of its noxious properties, and when roasted or boiled 

 becomes a nutritious and highly savoury food. It yields the valuable 

 farinaceous material of Tapioca. Its leaves are cooling and healing; 

 from its seeds an excellent oil is procured; and the juice which drops 



* Order, Euphorbiacex. 



