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while among the rocks monster euphorbias and yuccas hold possession, 
and predominate. 
The Machemba district is peopled by Anguru, who have their head- 
quarters round the south and south-east corners of Lake Shirwa. The 
i a 
them. "Though not distinguishable in dress, however, he proved himself 
a chief in kindliness of heart once he knew that our mission was peaceful. 
He was delighted, as were all his people, to receive the British flag, and 
in return for something I gave him presented me with a fat-tailed 
sheep such as I had never seen before. Nyeserera rules a numerous 
people who seem to enjoy life to the full. They came in crowds to see 
' the strangers, my friend's donkey proving a P reat centre of attraction. 
As the territory of Nyeserera reached the limits of the Nyassaland 
Protectorate in a north-easterly direction, Б object of my journey was 
now accomplished, and I returned to Chilomo by a route which for the 
greater part lay through spna bush having no particular features 
worthy of description, 
CCV.—AFRICAN OIL PALM. 
(Eleis guineensis, Jacq.) 
The Kew Bulletin for November 1889 (p. 259), contains some account 
of the Palm Oil industry of West Africa in peanas неге the attempt 
made to introduce it into Borneo. This account may be supplemented 
by the fuller жө extracted from the набе, published Report of the 
Commission appointed in 1887 to consider the promotion of economic 
agriculture on the Gold Coast. This document contains a great deal of 
important information upon the principal staples of the Colony, and is 
understood to have been drawn up by the Vice-President, Mr. W. F. 
Hutehinson, “а gentleman of local connexion and practical experience," 
who has himself артат and worked an agricultural farm in the 
neighbourhood of Ca 
Of all the products of aie Gold Coast the Eleis guineensis is 
undoubtedly the most important to the native. The fruit supplies him 
with a favourite and two important articles of commerce; with 
the leaf-stalks he builds his house and barn and thatches them with its 
leaves, and from the stem he extracts a pleasant an mes) 
intoxicating drink. The tree — a moist soil, flourishing in t 
warm, damp — where it grows in extensive forests. It ever 
been made the object of systematic лавы but, as n 
ascertained, it begins to bear in its fourth or fifth year, increasing till 
u 
its fifteenth and continues to bear at least 60 yea roduces from 
four to seven bunches of nuts every / he “ fatness ” of the nuts 
(i.e., the amount of oil contained in the fibre) differs greatly according 
to soil, the quantity of oil varies from three gallons per year in a moist 
soil to one gallon in dry. These nuts have a fibrous gett which 
contains the moe palm oil. Three varieties of the tree are dis- 
tinguished, ba orange, red, and black nuts spin So the first 
giving the finest. oil but small deme = €— less oil but 
Mise the bunches of nuts zre ripe th cut and thrown into a hole 
а till a sufficient quai; is cilicio to be made into oil. 
