188 
Original Communications. 
which he saw in the Cape de Verd Islands, measured forty 
feet in circumference, and was abotft sixty feet high. • Adanson, 
however, says that the diameter of the trunk is sometimes 
thirty feet. The bark is smooth and of a grayish colour, 
the branches are of a great size and terminate abruptly, and 
from these truncated extremities the smaller branches are 
given off. The fruit which is attached to a long, twisted, 
pendent foot stalk, varying in length from one to two feet, is 
of an oval form, about six inches in length, and three or four 
in circumference, rough externally, and when mature, of a 
brownish yellow colour ; on the outer shell being broken, Mr. 
Bennett found that it contained not the yellow pulp usually 
described, but a white farinaceous substance, enveloping the 
dark brown seeds, and of an agreeable acid taste. Mr. Ben- 
nett, it is evident, examined an old and withered fruit, as all 
other observers agree in stating that at first the fruit contains 
a pulpy substance, which becomes farinaceous on drying. 
The young leaves dried and reduced to powder, are much 
employed by the negroes under the name of Lalo, to mix 
with their food; they are of opinion that a constant use of 
this condiment tends to diminish the excessive perspiration to 
which they are subjected, and Europeans have found it use- 
ful in cases of diarrhoea, &c. 
The juice expressed from the fruit is used as a lemonade in 
the fevers of the country. (Hooker. Bot. Mag. 2792.) The 
dried pulp mixed with water is considered to be efficacious 
in dysentery, and from the experiments of Dr. L. Frank, it 
would seem that its virtues have not been overrated. (Delile. 
Cent. 12.) From the analysis of Vauquelin, it appears that 
this pulp is composed of a gum, resembling gum arabic, an 
acid analogous to the malic, sugar like that of the grape, 
starch, &c. 
The fruit forms an object of commerce in Africa, and is 
conveyed to great distances. If it be injured or decayed it 
is burned, and the ley of the ashes boiled with palm oil, to 
form a soap. 
Sago. — Dr. Hooker, (Bot. Mag. 2827,) in speaking of the 
Cycas circinalis says, " it is a native of the East Indies, and 
