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, u 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. 



