516 
ON  THE  KINO  TREE  OF  WEST  AFRICA. 
In  their  travels  through  Senegambia  to  Sierra  Leone  in  1817- 
19,  Messrs.  Gray  and  Dochard  also  met  with  this  production, 
lander  the  country  name  of  Karl,  the  flowers  and  a  leaf  of  which 
have  been  well  delineated  and  described  by  Sir.  W.  Hooker,  by 
the  appellation  Pterocarpus  Africanus,  or  gum  Kari,  in  the  Ap- 
pendix to  their  volume.  Major  Gray  observed,  that  when  inci- 
sions were  made  in  the  trunk  and  branches  of  the  tree  the  juice 
flowed  out,  "  at  first  of  an  extremely  pale-red  color,  and  in  a 
very  liquid  state  ;  but  it  soon  coagulates,  becoming  of  a  deep 
blood-red  hue,  and  so  remarkably  brittle,  that  its  collection  is 
attended  with  some  difficulty." 
The  Florae  Senegambix  of  MM.  Guillemin  and  Perottet,  pub- 
lished in  1830-33,  contains,  however,  the  most  correct  outline 
of  the  Pterocarpus  erinaceus.  In  their  work  the  flowers,  leaves, 
and  other  portions  of  the  plant  are  truly  figured,  and  afford 
an  excellent  representation  of  its  botanical  features.  The  char- 
acteristic description  now  appended  has  been  taken  from  these 
authorities.  I  may  remark,  en  passant,  that  the  specimens  of 
the  kino  tree  brought  from  the  Gambia  by  myself,  when  com- 
pared with  those  of  Park,  and  the  dilineations  of  the  above  au- 
thors, leave  but  a  slight  doubt  as  to  their  identity,  and  manifestly 
indicate  that  all  belong  to  the  same  production. 
Pterocarpus,  Linn.  Lamck.,  D.  C. 
Sepala  5  in  calycem  5  dentatum  concreta.    Petala  5  in  corol- 
to  the  Pterocarpus  erinacea  of  Lamarck,  (Encyclopedia  Methodique,  Bo* 
tanique,  v.,  p.  728,  and  Illustration  des  Genres,  t.  602,  f.  4,  fruit).  In  the 
same  note,  Mr.  Brown  also  pointed  out  that  Pterocarpus  Africanus  or 
Senegalensis  of  Sir  W.  Hooker  in  the  appendix  to  Grey  and  Dochard's 
Travels  in  Western  Africa,  p.  395,  t.  D.,  was  founded  on  the  same  plant 
and  Messrs.  Guillemin  and  Perottet  have  shown  that  the  Pterocarpus  Ad- 
ansonii  of  Decandolle  (Prodromus  ii.,  p.  419)  is  in  no  respect  distinct. 
These  gentlemen  have  also  {Flora  Senegambioz  Tentamen,  i.,p.  229,  t.  54) 
given  a  detailed  description  of  the  tree,  together  with  an  excellent  figure 
drawn  by  M.  Decaisne,  accompanied  by  some  notes  on  the  mode  by  which 
the  gum  is  extracted,  and  on  its  pharmaceutical  properties.  In  the  Bank- 
sian  herbarium  at  the  British  Museum,  besides  the  specimens  of  Mungo 
Park,  there  are  others  of  the  leaves  and  fruit  of  the  Mandingo  1  Jcano  '  col- 
lected by  Mr.  Pitman  in  1850,  and  these  are  now  completed  by  the  addi- 
tion of  excellent  specimens  of  the  flowers/7 
