Cf)£ CreaSurg af 28fltantJ. 



18 



salt water ; but I cannot believe that any f 

 of those now alive had a chance of being 

 subjected to the experiment of even the 

 Noachian deluge.' 



The bark of the Baobab furnishes a fibre 

 which is made into ropes, and in Senegal 

 woven into cloth. The fibre is so strong 

 as to give rise to a common saying in 

 Bengal : 'As secure as an elephant bound 

 with a baobab rope.' The wood is soft, and 

 subject to the attacks of a fungus which 

 destroys its life, and renders the part af- 

 fected'easily hollowed out. This is done by 

 the negroes, and within these hollows ' they 

 suspend the dead bodies of those who are 

 refused the honour of burial. There they 

 become mummies, perfectly dry and well 

 preserved, without any further preparation 

 or embalmment.' Livingstone speaks of a 

 hollow trunk, within which 20 to 30 men 

 could lie down with ease. The leaves 

 pounded constitute Lalo, which the Afri- 

 cans mix with their soups, sauces, &c, not 

 as a relish, but to diminish the excessive 

 perspiration, and keep the blood in a 

 healthy state. ' The pulp of the fruit is 

 slightly acid, agreeable, and often eaten ; 

 and the juice expressed from it constitutes 

 a drink which is valued as a specific' in 

 putrid and pestilential fevers. Owing to 

 this circumstance it forms an article of 

 commerce.' The ashes of the fruit and 

 bark boiled in rancid palm oil are used as a 

 soap by the negroes. 



The only other species of the genus is A. 

 Qregorii. It is a native of the sandy plains 

 of N. Australia, and is known as Sour 

 gourd and Cream of tartar tree. It dif- 



Adansonia Gregorii. 



fers chiefly from A. digitata in its smaller 

 fruit with a shorter foot stalk. The largest 

 tree seen in Gregory's expedition was 85 

 feet in girth at 2 feet from the ground. 

 The pulp of its fruit 'has an agreeable ^acid 

 taste, like cream of tartar, and is peculiarly 

 refreshing in the sultry climates where the 

 tree is found. It consists of gum, starch, 

 sugary matter, and malic acid.' [A. A. B.] 



ADDER'S MOUTH. An American name 

 for Microstylis. 



ADDER'S TONGUE. The English name 

 for Ophioglossum. — YELLOW. Erythro- 

 nium americanurn. 



ADECTUM. A synonym of Dennstcedtia, 

 a handsome free-growing genus of ferns, 

 related to Dicksonia. [T. M.] 



ADELASTER (Gr. like something un- 

 known). A name proposed for those garden 

 plants which, having come into cultivation 

 without their flowers being known, cannot 

 be definitively referred to their proper 

 genus. All Adelasters are therefore pro- 

 visional names, to be abandoned as soon 

 as the true names of the plants so called 

 can be ascertained. 



ADENANDRA. A genus of rutaceous or 

 rue-like plants, so named on account of the 

 presence of a small gland on the top of the 

 stamens. They consist of small shrubs, 

 natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 some of them are cultivated for the sake 

 of their pink-coloured flowers. The genus 

 is principally distinguished by its 5 sterile 

 stamens, which are in form like the 5 fer- 

 tile ones, but longer: both kinds tipped 

 with a gland. The leaves are used for the 

 same purposes as those of Diosma at the 

 Cape. [M. T. M.] 



ADEN ANTHER A. A genus of the pea 



family (Leguminosce). The species are chiefly 

 found in eastern India and the Malayan 

 Islands, and one is wild in Madagascar. 

 They are trees or shrubs, with bipinnate 

 or decompound leaves and spikes of small 

 yellow flowers, the anthers of which are 

 tipped with a stalked gland; and these 

 gland-tipped anthers give rise to the 

 generic name. A. pavonina grows to a 

 great size in the East Indies, and yields a 

 solid useful timber, called Red Sandal wood, 

 a name which is also given to the wood of 

 Pterocarpus savtalinus. A dye is obtained 

 by simply rubbing the wood against a wet 

 stone ; and this is used by the Brahmins 

 for marking their foreheads after religious 

 bathing. The seeds are of a bright scarlet 

 colour, and are used by the jewellers in the 

 East as weights, each seed weighing uni- 

 formly four grains. Pounded and mixed 

 with borax, they form an adhesive sub- 

 stance. They are sometimes used as an 

 article of food, and are frequently made 

 into ornaments, such as bracelets, neck- 

 laces, &c. [A. A. B.] 



ADENOCALYMNA. The name given to 

 a genus of Bignoniacece. The species are 

 large climbers, and all of them natives of 

 Brazil, where they scramble over trees, 

 enlivening the forests with their clusters 

 of bright-coloured yellow, orange, or pink 

 flowers. Their stems are slender and often 

 rough. Their leaves are ternate, or some- 

 times only binate ; when this latter is the 

 case, a tendril-like appendage takes tbe 

 place of the third leaflet. Numbers of 

 depressed circular glands are found on 

 their surface, as well as on the calyx ; and 

 from this circumstance the genus receive? 



