i6s 
BAOBAB TREE. 
these trees were about eighty-five feet in circum- 
ference, and thirty in diameter. Golberry likewise, 
in his Travels in Africa, tells us that he met with 
them of thirty-four feet in diameter. Although the 
baobab is very tender, and susceptible of injury, it 
must survive a vast number of years, or it could . 
never arrive at the amazing size we have just stated; 
and as a proof of its longevity we shall quote 
Golberry, who measured one of the trees mentioned 
by Adanson, thirty-six years after that celebrated 
naturalist, and found that it had only increased a 
foot and some inches in circumference, or about 
eight lines in diameter! 
The baobab contains within its substance a great 
quantity of mucilage, or gummy matter, which is 
slightly acid. The leaves, boiled in water, give out 
this mucilage so as to make the decoction viscous. 
The fruit, which is a thick, oval, and hairy capsule, 
contains a number of seeds enclosed within ten sepa- 
rate chambers, and the white spongy flesh which 
surrounds these seeds is of an acid and agreeable 
flavour. This, however, is only while it is eaten 
fresh, as it loses much of its goodness by keeping. 
This tree is reckoned the most useful and salu- 
tary of any that grows in Senegal. The negroes 
make great use of its leaves, which they dry in a 
shady place, and afterwards grind to a green powder 
called calo. This powder is kept in cotton cloths 
and used daily, two or three pinches being put into 
their couscous or other dish. This is not done by 
way of improving the flavour of this meat, for the 
