THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Mat 1, 1864. 



472 AFRICAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. 



Cowper, so significantly set forth in the year 1862, that "Each climate 

 needs what other climes produce." Though the products of each 

 nation or country may be vast and extensive in itself, it is alone by the 

 system of freedom in trade and navigation from one port to another that 

 the prosperity of a nation greatly depends. The British Colonies and 

 dependencies furnish us directly with many of our most valuable and 

 indispensable requisites, and continental and other countries receive 

 from us, indirectly, the same kind of valuable commodities. Though in 

 this age of research and enterprise much has been said upon utilising and 

 economising substances and products which men have hitherto passed 

 over unheeded, little good has yet been practically effected. The duty has 

 been thoroughly performed, by a few thoughtful minds, of bringing such 

 substances prominently before the notice of those who have capital to 

 test their worth, and the effects, though not apparent now, will no 

 doubt show themselves in the days of a future generation. Much has 

 been done in another field, that of geographical exploration, the results 

 of which, in some cases, have been advantageous, in others but doubtful, 

 though they are the means alone whereby we can obtain a knowledge of 

 the natural productions of obscure countries, and determine the probabi- 

 lity of their future application in the arts and manufactures of civilised 

 nations. In the vegetable world much, even in our own land, lies hidden 

 from the eye of application, and this is more or less the case, in every 

 country, in proportion as the resources are small or great. 



In the following notes upon African products, some of which have 

 recently come under my notice, I am not led into the belief that all 

 may become great commercial speculations ; indeed, many of them are 

 already known. The difficulty of opening a free communication with the 

 interior of Africa is not a new fact. The power of the Portuguese on the 

 Eastern Coast, and the difficulty of obtaining labour, which is so great a 

 drawback in many countries (even in the Australian colonies), as well as 

 the difficulty attending the transit, all militate strongly against the pros- 

 pect of the interior of Africa opening in our day a free trading communi- 

 cation. Some of the products here enumerated are only known to be in 

 use amongst the natives, but their economic palue is very apparent. They 

 produce some of their brightest and best colours for dyeing their mats, 

 &c, from woods, barks, seeds, roots, &c, and these colours are mostly 

 fixed without the aid of mordants (the knowledge of the use of which 

 is quite unknown to them). One of the best dye-woods found on the 

 Zambesi is a species ol Cudrania, a plant closely allied to the Fustic of 

 Commerce. This is a common climbing shrub. The colouring prin- 

 ciple seems to be as fully developed as in the wood of Madura. It is 

 the heart wood from which the dye is obtained, though the bark is of a 

 very bright yellow, and of a considerable thickness, running in deep 

 ridges in a slightly spiral direction. The external covering is of a 

 dusky brown colour, very thin, which, upon peeling off, exposes a very 

 bright yellow bark, and this appears to be composed of thin layers 



