242 



VEGETABLES. 



slave who plunders every garden ; nothing less 

 than a guard of Baloch would preserve edible 

 property from his necessities and from his truly 

 African wantonness of destruction. 



Almost all European vegetables will grow in 

 the Island ; they require, however, shade, and 

 they should be planted, as at Bourbon and the 

 Mauritius, between rows of cool bananas. The 

 best soil is the dark vegetable mould near the 

 streams. Here lettuces, beet-root, carrots, po- 

 tatoes, and yams would nourish — cabbages and 

 cauliflowers have never, I believe, been tried. 

 The c Jezar,' an excellent sweet potato from 

 Comoro and Madagascar, has been neglected 

 almost to extinction. Thirty barrels of many 

 sorted beans were sent from the Cape and grew 

 well : they are good and abundant in the African 

 interior, but the Island has allowed them to die 

 out. The c egg-plant ' is remarkably fine, and the 

 wild species thrives everywhere on the sea-board 

 between Somali land and Zanzibar. The Continent 

 sends sundry kinds of pumpkins and gourds. 

 Cucumbers of many varieties grow almost without 

 sowing, — the people declare that they become 

 bitter if touched by the hand whilst being peeled. 

 The Arabs make from the seed an oil of most 

 delicate flavour, far superior for salads than the 



