ON  THE  KINO  TREE  OF  WEST  AFRICA. 
513 
ON  THE  PTEROCARPUS  ERINACEUS,  OR  KINO  TREE  OF 
WEST  AFRICA. 
BY  W.  F.  DANIELL,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  G.  S. 
Honorary  Member  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
In  conformity  with  the  routine  of  garrison  duties  pertaining 
to  the  Gambia  command,  I  became  stationed,  towards  the  close 
of  1852,  at  Janjamberri,  or  Macarthy's  Island,  a  small  military 
outpost  established  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  inland 
from  the  embouchure  of  the  river.  This  small  island  was  ad- 
vantageously situated  between  Pisanea  and  Kayi  (the  points 
from  which  the  intrepid  Mungo  Park  commenced  his  first  and 
second  explorations  into  Central  Africa),  and  afforded  a  rich  field 
for  botanical  and  ethnological  research.  In  former  years  the 
circumjacent  localities,  now  denuded  of  their  more  valuable  tim- 
ber, were  clothed  by  dense  forests,  from  which  considerable  sup- 
plies were  derived  by  the  European  traders  at  Bathurst,  which 
consisted  chiefly  in  what  was  termed  in  commercial  parlance,  Af- 
rican mahogany  (Ximenia  Americana  ?).  With  this  mahogany 
was  also  felled  another  kind  of  wood,  deemed  of  much  less  value 
in  a  mercantile  point  of  view,  and  therefore  seldom  exported  to 
England  ;  yet,  nevertheless,  held  in  high  request  by  the  native 
communities  for  the  purposes  of  house  and  boat-building,  and 
other  colonial  appliances.  By  Europeans  it  was  known  under 
the  name  of  rosewood  ;  but  the  Mandingo,  JolofF,  and  other  abo- 
riginal tribes,  employed  their  own  peculiar  designation. 
The  latter  of  these  trees  on  several  occasions  attracted  my  at- 
tention in  consequence  of  its  branches  being  entirely  destitute 
of  leaves  and  flowers,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  dry  season, 
while  its  greyish  trunk  was  frequently  tinged  with  ruby-colored 
exudations,  which  occasionally  collected  in  small  dark  friable 
masses,  on  the  abraded  surfaces  of  the  bark,  'and  within  the 
deeper  interstices.  A  careful  examination  of  the  botanical  char- 
acter of  this  product,  led  me  to  infer  that  it  was  the  Pterocarpus 
erinaceus,  Lam.,  or  true  kino  tree  of  West  Africa,  which  an 
analytical  investigation  of  the  gum  to  some  extent  confirmed,  in- 
asmuch as  it  was  apparently  endowed  with  those  characteristic 
properties,  by  which  medical  authorities  had  previously  distin- 
guished it. 
At  present,  the  information  we  possess  respecting  the  early 
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