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BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
for anointing the body and occasionally for cooking. Oil derived from the 
Sesamum plant is much used in cooking. The oil palm ( Elce'is guineensis ) is 
semi-cultivated and grows wild in North-West Nyasaland, on the south coast 
of Tanganyika and on the Luapula river. The husks of its nuts express the 
rich “palm oil” of commerce which the natives of those few parts of British 
Central Africa where the oil palm grows, use in their food and cooking similarly 
to the West African negroes. 
The roots of the Borassus palm are sometimes eaten in seasons of scarcity. 
The seeds of the Itch bean 
(Mucuna ) are also roasted and 
eaten when food crops are lack¬ 
ing, and the grains of certain wild 
grasses allied to the millet are 
gathered and made into a poor 
flour when other resources fail. 
Several wild herbs furnish a kind 
of spinach, which mixed with oil 
and condiments is a favourite 
relish to be eaten with the porridge 
made of flour that forms the staple 
of their existence. Red peppers 
(capsicums ) are one of the condi¬ 
ments referred to. Though of re¬ 
latively recent introduction, these 
“ chillies,” both red and green, are 
found growing in nearly every 
native village. 
Some fifteen species of edible 
and nutritious fungi grow in 
British Central Africa in the 
rainy season and are much appre¬ 
ciated by the natives. Many roots, 
which I cannot identify, are de¬ 
voured ; the “heart” is cut out of 
certain palms (i.e., that soft por¬ 
tion containing the undeveloped 
fronds) and is stewed and eaten. 
The roots of Trapa natans , a 
water weed, the flowers and roots 
of the blue water-lily, the leaves of the Protea shrub, the gums of certain 
acacias and of papilionaceous trees, the stalks and leaves of a bean ( Crotalaria\ 
the seeds of certain Hibiscuses are also consumed by the natives in times of 
scarcity. For fruits they have the “plums” of the Parinarium and of several 
Diospyros trees and shrubs, the sweet “ Masuku ” ( Uapaca kirkiana —a fruit 
something like a medlar with orange-coloured honey-tasting pulp), sycomore 
figs, wild dates, “ bush oranges ” (the fruit of several species of Stiychnos) r 
custard apple ( Anona ) and the bright crimson seed-vessels of the Amomums. 
Many more seeds, roots, leaves and fruits than those I have enumerated are 
cooked and eaten, and not always because of scarcity, but because they are 
palatable. It is, however, truly remarkable—and here is a trait characteristic of 
the entire negro race—that throughout the ages during which the black man 
BANANA GROVE (MLANJE) 
