362 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



Meal from Jamaica, and a sweetmeat made of the fruit 

 from Formosa, are shown in the Kew Museum. The 

 seeds yield a clear, limpid, and almost colourless sweet- 

 oil, which is edible, and also used for burning in lamps. 

 — ' Treasury of Botany,' Lindley and Moore ; ' Oil- 

 seeds and Oils in the India Museum,' Cooke, p. 41. 

 Distribution : Nile Land, Lower Guinea. 



Common Gourd, Melon, Pumpkin, &c. (Cuciirbita 

 <inaxiina, Duch.). — Annual, cultivated in all warm and 

 temperate parts of the globe. The fruits of this 

 species are largely used in India, France, and North 

 America as an article of food, and as it keeps well it 

 is used in the latter country through a great part of 

 the winter. Some specimens of these fruits or gourds 

 grown in Western Africa and carved by the Negroes at 

 Bahia are to be seen in the Kew Museum. — ' Treasury 

 of Botany,' Lindley and Moore, &c. 



Distribution : Upper Guinea, Nile Land, Lower 

 Guinea. 



Bryonia laciniosa, L. — Perennial. The whole plant 

 is collected when in fruit for medicinal purposes. It 

 is bitter and aperient, and is considered to have tonic 

 properties. — ' Vegetable Materia Medica of Western 

 India,' Dymock, p. 293. 



Distribution : Upper Guinea, Nile Land, Mozam- 

 bique District. 



Haffafalu (Tigre name), Aregressa (Amhara name) 



