ON  THE  KINO  TREE  OF  WEST  AFRICA. 
515 
bark  ;  upon  wounding  it,  it  sweats  out  in  drops  like  blood,  which 
joining  together  and  being  dried  by  the  sun,  congeal  into  lumps. 
I  have  had  some  as  large  as  pullet's  eggs."  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  gum  dragon  here  referred  to,  is  the  ruby-co- 
lored exudation  from  the  Pterocarpus,  and  consequently  the  true 
kino,  as  the  above  description  will  be  discovered  to  be  closely 
applicable  both  to  the  cortex  and  its  peculiar  sap. 
Dr.  Winterbottom,  for  many  years  physician  to  the  colony  of 
Sierra  Leone,  upon  his  arrival  in  1796,  in  England,  introduced 
into  his  practice  a  species  of  bark  procured  from  the  Mandingo 
country,  which  Afzelius  from  its  aspect  surmised  might  belong- 
to  the  genus  Rondeletia.  From  subsequent  inquiries,  however, 
it  was  ascertained  that  his  views  were  correct,  inasmuch  as  the 
same  cortical  substance,  from  specimens  since  submitted  to  my 
examination,  that  pertained  to  the  kino  were  evidently  those 
that  pertained  to  the  kino  tree.  A  remarkable  circumstance  ten- 
ding to  confirm  this  statement  is,  that  the  Foulah  title  of  Bellenda, 
by  which  it  was  known  in  Sierra  Leone,  was  precisely  the  same  un- 
der which  the  Foota  foulahs  of  the  Gambia  recognized  it.  Dr. 
Winterbottom  likewise  furnished  a  brief  outline  of  its  medicinal 
virtues,  and  the  diseases  in  which  the  native  practitioners  resorted 
to  its  exhibition,  to  be  noticed  in  a  future  part  of  this  paper. 
During  his  second  expedition  into  Central  Africa  in  1805, 
Mungo  Park  found  the  Pterocarpus  erinaceus  growing  plenti- 
fully in  the  neighborhood  of  Pisanea,  and  transmitted  the  leaves 
and  fruit  to  England,  where  they  still  exist  in  the  botanical  col- 
lection of  the  British  Museum  in  a  good  state  of  preservation. 
The  discovery,  therefore,  of  the  source  of  the  original  kino,  can 
only  be  ascribed  to  this  illustrious  traveller.* 
*  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  a  distinguished  botanist,  Mr,  J.  J. 
Bennett,  of  the  British  Museum,  for  the  following  history  of  this  plant. 
He  remarks,  that  "  the  tree  producing  the  true  gum  kino  of  commerce  waa 
unknown,  until  a  branch  in  leaf,  together  with  the  fruit  and  gum,  were 
transmitted  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks  from  Kayee,  on  the  river  Gambia,  in 
1805,  by  Mungo  Park,  during  his  last  fatal  expedition  into  the  interior  of 
Africa  (vide  Park's  Journal,  &c,  Lond.,  4to,  1815,  p.  lxi.  and  p.  cxxiv). 
These  specimens  were  immediately  determined  to  belong  to  a  species  of 
Pterocarpus,  at  first  presumed  to  be  undescribed,  but  were  subsequently 
referred  by  Dr.  Brown  (Vide  Denham's  Narrative,  append.,  p.  235,  note) 
