1 77 
Notes on the Congo River. 
Kola (Sterculia); “ Hyphaena” and “ Dom” for 
Palmyra Flabelliformis, whose “ fruit hangs down 
in bunched clusters; ” “ Raphia ” for Raphia. 
Vinifera, commonly called the bamboo or wine 
palm, and “ casa,” a purgative legumen, for nkasa, 
“ sass,” or poison wood, identified with the red- 
water tree of Sierra Leone, the erythropheum of 
Professor Afzelius, of the order Caesalpineae, which 
gave a name to the Brazil. 
The next important visit to the Congo River 
was paid by Captain Owen’s Expedition, when 
homeward bound in 1826. The “Leven” and 
“ Barracouta” surveyed the stream twenty-five miles 
from its mouth during a week, beginning with 
January 1, just after the highest flood. At thirteen 
miles out at sea the water was fresh and of a 
dingy red; it fermented and remained in a highly 
putrescent state for some days, tarnishing silver; 
kept for four months, it became perfectly clear and 
colourless, without depositing any sediment. This 
reminds us of the changing colours, green, red 
and milky white, to which the Nile and all great 
African rivers that flood periodically are subject. 1 
1 “ Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and Arabia,” 
by Captain Thomas Boteler. London: Bentley, 1835; re¬ 
peated from Owen’s “ Voyages to Africa, Arabia,” &c. London: 
Bentley, 1833. Lt. Wolf, R.N., has given an able analysis of 
this great surveying undertaking in the “ Journal of the Geo¬ 
graphical Society,” vol. iii. of 1833. 
II. 
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