OF CENTEAIi APEICA. 289 



country, by whom it is called Doura. According to Cap- 

 tain Clapperton, " The seeds are roasted as we roast coffee, 

 then bruised, and allowed to ferment in water ; when they 

 begin to become putrid, they are well washed and pounded ; 

 the powder made into cakes, somewhat in the fashion of our 

 chocolate ; they form an excellent sauce for all kinds of 

 food. The farinaceous matter surrounding the seed is 

 made into a pleasant drink, and they also make it into a 

 sweetmeat." The Doura of Captain Clapperton is probably 

 not specifically different from the Nitta mentioned by Park 

 in his ' Rrst Journey'; nor from Inga biglobosa of the ' Plore 

 d'Oware' of ]\I. De Beauvois, according to whom it is the 

 Nety of Senegal ; and he also well remarks that Inga 

 biglobosa, described by Jacquin as a native of Martinico, 

 has probably been introduced into that island by the 

 Negroes, as he himself found it to have been in St. Do- 

 mingo. 



Inga Senegalensis of M. De Candolle {Prodr. 2, p. 442) 

 may also belong to the same species. 



It is possible, however, that some of the plants here 

 mentioned, though very nearly related to each other, and 

 having all the same remarkable club-shaped spike, may 

 be specifically distinct ; for it appears from specimens col- 

 lected at Sierra Leone by Professor Afzelius that two \iu 

 plants having this form of spike are known in that colony, 

 and two species, with similar inflorescence, probably dis- 

 tinct from those of Africa, are described in the manuscript 

 'Flora Indica' of Dr. Roxburgh. All these plants possess 

 characters fully sufficient to distinguish them from Inga, to 

 which they have hitherto been referred. The new genus 

 which they form, one of the most striking and beautiful in 

 equinoctial Africa, I have named Parkia,^ as a tribute of 



1 PAEKIA. 



Oed. Nat. Leguminosa-Mimosea : Csesalpineis proximum genus. 



Chas. Gen. Cal^x tubulosus ore bilabiato (|) ; jestivatione imbricata! 

 Fetala 5, subsequalia, supremo (paulo) latiore ; Kstivatioae conmventi-imbri- 

 cata. Siamim decern, hypogyna, monadelpha. Legumen polyspermum : epi- 

 carpio bivalvi ; endocarpio in looulos monospermos sarcocarpio fannaceo tectos 



Arbo'res {Africans et India orienialis) inermes. Folia bipinnata, pinnis folio- 



XfJ 



