452 Account of the Edible Fruits of Sierra Leone. 



useful purposes. Plants raised from the seeds sent home by 

 Mr. Don, are growing in the Garden of the Society. 



The genus to which this plant is referred is the same as the 

 Parinari of Aublet. It is also the Petrocarya of Schreber 

 and Willdenow. 



Gingerbread Plum. Parinarium macrophyllum. 



A fruit of an oblong form, twice the size of the rough- 

 skinned Plum, but otherwise resembling it, both in flavour 

 and appearance, produced by a shrub from two to three 

 feet high, was seen by Mr. Don. Specimens of branches, 

 with blossoms, were received from him, but he did not 

 send home any of the fruit in spirits. On reference to the 

 Herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, this is found, by a note 

 annexed to a specimen of the plant preserved there, to be a 

 fruit called in the colony Gingerbread, which is not however 

 noticed by Afzelius in his Report. The plant grows plenti- 

 fully on the sea shore near Cape Shilling, which is upwards 

 of thirty miles distant from Free-Town, and was not seen 

 elsewhere. The fruit is not sold in the markets of Sierra 

 Leone, which will account for the circumstance of the name 

 applied to it being unknown to Mr. Don. The identity of 

 the two specimens was pointed out by Mr. Brown. The 

 shrub is so particularly handsome, that it would be a valu- 

 able addition to our stoves ; its leaves are alternate, nume- 

 rous, very large, ovate, sessile and cordate, darkish green 

 above and downy underneath ; the stems are covered thickly 

 with brown hairs, and produce large clusters of white flowers 

 at their extremities. 



