278 



between Javita and the canno Pimichin, appears 

 to be a new species of cocoa-tree. It may be 

 recollected, that the fluid contained in the fruit 

 of the common cocoa-tree is often saline, even 

 when the tree grows far from the seashore. At 

 Madagascar salt is extracted from the sap of a 

 palm-tree called cira *. Beside the spadix and 

 the fruit" of the seje palm, the Indians of Javita 

 lixiviate also the ashes of the famous liana called 

 cupana, which is a new species of the genus paul- 

 linia, consequently a very different plant from 

 the cupania of Linneus. I shall mention on this 

 occasion, that a missionary seldom travels with- 

 out being provided with some prepared seeds of 

 the- cupana. This preparation requires great 

 care. The Indians scrape the seeds, mix them 

 with flour of cassava, envelop the mass in plan- 

 tain leaves, and set it to ferment in water, till it 

 acquires a saffron-yellow colour. This yellow 

 paste dried in the sun, and diluted in water, is 

 taken in the morning as a kind of tea. This 

 beverage is bitter and stomachic, but appeared 

 to me to have a very disagreeable taste. 



On the banks of the Niger, and in a great 

 part of the interior of Africa, where salt is ex- 

 tremely rare, it is said of a rich man, " he is so 

 happy as to eat salt at his meals." This happi- 

 ness is not too common in the interior of Guy- 



* Jacquin, Hort. Schoenb., vol. i, p. x. 



