42 MOSQUITOES 



a perfectly globular-shaped fruit as large as a good-sized orange, 

 but having a hard shell which requires a smart blow to crack. 

 It contains a greyish pulp, and a number of large black seeds ; 

 and although by no means equal to an orange in taste, its acid 

 flavour was refreshing enough where one was thirsty and heated 

 with the midday sun. A friend of mine remarks : " As they 

 are rather more difficult to eat in a cleanly and dainty fashion 

 than ripe mangoes, we smeared ourselves pretty considerably in 

 the process." While the pulp is edible, the seeds are poisonous, 

 and we need not wonder at that when we find that the tree is 

 closely allied to the Strychnos nux-vomica. Its native name is 

 Vdavotaka (Brehmia spinosa) ; vda is the general word for 

 " fruit," and enters into the composition of more than two 

 hundred Malagasy names of trees, plants and fruits. A species 

 of Hibiscus is widely spread along the coast, and yields a valuable 

 fibre. The natives say that its flowers are yellow in the morning 

 and red in the evening. Other noticeable flowering shrubs here 

 are a species of Stephanotis, with lovely large white flowers, and 

 an Ipomcea, which straggles far and wide on the sand of the sea- 

 shore. Along the sides of the lagoons and marshes in scattered 

 places may be found the curious pitcher-plant (Nepenthes 

 madagascariensis) ; this is a shrub about four feet high, whose 

 jug-shaped pitchers, four to five inches in length, contain abund- 

 ant water and numerous insects. Gum-copal is obtained from 

 a tree (Trachylobium verrucosa) growing on this coast ; and 

 india-rubber from several plants (Landolphia madagascariensis 

 and L. gummijera), creepers as well as trees. 



Notwithstanding the beauty of this part of the country, it is 

 very unhealthy for foreigners. The rivers, as we have seen, all 

 communicate with the lagoons, and during the rainy season 

 great quantities of decaying matter are brought down from the 

 forests. The large extent of marsh and stagnant water in the 

 lakes breed millions of mosquitoes, and so give rise to the dreaded 

 malarial fever. The earlier accounts of the French and 

 Portuguese settlements on the coast of Madagascar represent 

 this as a frightful scourge, sweeping off a large proportion of the 

 soldiers and settlers at their forts. From this, the Isle Ste Marie 

 was called the " Grave of the French," and " the Churchyard " 

 and " Dead Island " of the Dutch. But the use of quinine and 

 modern precautions against mosquito bites have done much to 



