440 Account of the Edible Fruits of Sierra Leone. 



The chief knowledge which was previously possessed on 

 the subject is derived from the Report made by Professor 

 Adam Afzelius to the African Society, in the year 1794. 

 The Botanical Appendix to the account of the Expedition to 

 the Congo, under the command of Captain Tuckey, drawn 

 up by Mr. Robert Brown in 1818, furnishes much informa- 

 tion respecting the vegetable productions of the part of 

 Africa in the vicinity of that river, and where they are the 

 same as those of Sierra Leone, has been of important use in 

 making out the account of Mr. Don's collection. 



It will be observed, that though some of the fruits re- 

 corded by Afzelius, seem to have escaped the observation of 

 Mr. Don, he has not only made us acquainted with several 

 valuable kinds, not included in that writer's Report, but has 

 added much information respecting others which were very 

 imperfectly known. It is also not impossible, that it may be 

 hereafter ascertained that plants mentioned in the Report, 

 which are now supposed not to have been seen by Mr. Don, 

 may have been actually obtained by him, but under names 

 different from those which have been applied to them in that 

 publication. The difficulty, however, of procuring flowering 

 specimens of some of the fruits which are brought to market 

 by the natives, from places not visited by Europeans, is so 

 great as even now to render it impossible to ascertain the 

 species of the trees which produce those kinds. 



Mr. Don arrived at Sierra Leone on the 18th of February, 

 1822, and quitted the Colony on the 11th of April following. 

 He then proceeded along the coast to the southward, and on 

 the 17th of May landed on the island of St. Thomas, where 

 he remained nearly a month, and in that island also formed a 



