By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



457 



Mammea. Linnceus. 

 Mammee Apple. Mammea Africana. 

 This is different from the Mammee (Mammea Americana), 

 of the West Indies ; it grows in the thickest parts of the woods 

 on the mountains of Sierra Leone ; it is a lofty tree, with very 

 pointed leaves of a dark green colour. Its wood is applied to 

 many useful purposes. This fruit is mentioned by Afzelius 

 in his Report ;* it is twice the size of a man's fist, and as large 

 as the West India kind, but more pointed, and of equal 

 excellence. 



Pentadesma. 



Butter and Tallow Tree. Pentadesma butyracea. 



This tree is not uncommon in the low lands round Sierra 

 Leone ; it occasionally grows to a great heighth, but produces 

 its flowers when thirty or forty feet high. The fruit is about 

 the size of the Mammee Apple described above, inversely 

 pear-shaped, being pointed at the apex ; it contains from three 

 to five large angular seeds ; the coat is rough, coarse, and of a 

 dark brown colour. The yellow greasy juice, from which the 

 tree derives its vernacular name, is given out copiously when 

 the fruit is cut or opened ; it is mixed by the natives with their 

 food; but is not however much used by the settlers on account 

 of a strong turpentine flavour which belongs to it ; this juice 

 is more abundant in the seeds than in the other part of the 

 fruit. The tree was noticed by AFZELius-i* Specimens of 

 the blossoms were not seen by Mr. Don, but from the re- 

 mains attached to those of the fruit sent home, as well as 

 from a flower in the possession of Mr. Brown, they appear 



* See Afzelius's Report, page 328, No. 39. f Ibid, page 234. No. 29. 

 VOL. V. 3 O 



