398 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



after having been cut in half and roasted, is employed 

 in Nubia as an outward application in rheumatic and 

 ■other complaints. On the Gold Coast this fruit is 

 employed as a charm by the fetish men and women, 

 in which case it is painted in alternate stripes of red, 

 white, and black, or entirely black, and dotted all over 

 with red and white spots. The ceremony in which it 

 is used is an invocation to the fetish to discover the 

 remedy to cure the disease of the person seeking 

 advice from the fetish man or woman. The natives 

 also esteem the bark as a sovereign cure for dysentery, 

 and have done so for many ages. The Nubians hold 

 this tree sacred, and celebrate their religious festivals 

 under it by moonlight. — ' Treasury of Botany,' Lindley 

 and Moore; 'Pharmaceutical Journal,' vol. iii., 1861, 

 p. 182. 



Distribution : Upper Guinea. 



Pedaline^. 



Pedalium Murex, L. — Tall, succulent, branching 

 annual plant. All parts of the plant give off a musky 

 odour when rubbed, and the fresh branches possess 

 the curious property of rendering water or milk 

 mucilaginous by simply drawing them a few times 

 round in the vessel containing it. In India the 

 buttermilk sold in the markets is frequently adulte- 

 rated with water thickened by this means. The seeds 

 are also mucilaginous, and are used in India for 



