120 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
mentioned as growing about Monrovia are occasionally found elsewhere near 
the coast. Sometimes rice or millet is parched and ground into a flour, which is 
used particularly in palm oil soup. Palm cabbage and a sort of spinach made 
from various leaves, particularly Portulaca, is sometimes eaten. The sweet banana 
does not constitute a staple article of diet in the interior of Liberia. No large 
banana plantations were found, but in the northeastern part of the country, 
particularly near Tappi Town, small groves of excellent bananas were seen. 
There is apparently no reason why the banana industry should not flourish 
in Liberia. No banana disease was noted in the small banana groves examined. 
The tobacco grown in small quantities in the vicinity of a number of villages, 
is not only smoked but sometimes used as snuff. 
In addition to the articles of diet already mentioned, the natives in the 
interior also eat a number of wild fruits. As these fruits, however, are not 
found in very great abundance in most neighborhoods, and are not gathered 
in quantity, they constitute rather an occasional than a staple article of diet. 
Among them, the species which have been identified by Dr. Linder, the botanist 
of the expedition, are: 
Anona senegalensis, a low tree or bush which produces oval, rather rough 
dark red fruit. 
Chrysobalanus orbicularis, another bush from ten to sixteen inches high, which 
gives rise to similar red fruits, and of rather insipid or slightly acid flavor. 
Aframomum sp., a member of the ginger family, is more often eaten. This 
plant forms dense thickets, and at the base of the long fronds occur the rounded 
tapering orange-colored fruits. The fruit has a highly aromatic flavor, but is 
coarse and fibrous. 
The fruit called by the natives the ‘‘monkey plum” is produced by a species 
of the Rosaceae, Parinarium macrophyllum (No. 130). 
The berries of a melastomaceous plant, Tristemma incompletum, pink in 
color, and about one-half inch in diameter, are also frequently eaten for their 
sweet acrid taste. 
The Bussea occidentalis, a member of the Leguminoseae, is a tree which grows 
to a height of eighty feet. It produces masses of rich yellow flowers which make 
it a striking sight in the forest. The flowers produce reddish pods that contain 
seeds eaten especially by the Kpwesi people. 
Randia sp., a bush some seven feet tall, has a fruit with a flavor much like 
that of cranberries, less tart, but still of an acid quality. 
Hibiscus esculentus is also a species of which the young fruits are eaten. 
The tree Ricinodrendron sp. also produces a fruit, the kernel of which is eaten. 
The husk is removed by boiling and then cracked, and the kernels are toasted 
and salted. This nut is very oily. 
Artocarpus uncisa (No. 183), the breadfruit tree, a low tree, also gives rise to 
a fruit which is eaten by the Americo-Liberians and local Mandingo people, but 
rarely by the Vai. This tree grows particularly in the coastal region. 
Xylopia vallotii, a large spreading tree about forty feet high, produces fruit 
which is eaten particularly by the Kpwesi tribe, and which is called “sibi.” 
