late of his holiness, begs you be pursuaded of his constant respect and attachment to you. "My wishes would be completely gratified, should I have the pleasure, as I most earnestly desire, to see you again at Frescati, and be able to assure you, by word of mouth, of my most sincere esteem, and affectionate, indelible gratitude. "Your best of friends, "HENRY CARDINAL "Venice, 7th May, 1800. "To Sir J. C. Hippesley, Bart. Grosvenor-street, London." NATURAL HISTORY. A Botanical and Economical Ac- [From the Asiatic Researches, Vol. VIII.] Bassia Butyracea. Polyandria Monogynia. Generic Character. CALY ALYX beneath, four or five leaved. Corol, one petaled: Border about eight cleft. Berry superior, with from one to five Seeds. Bassia Butyracea. Roxburgh. Calyx five-leaved; Stamens thirty or forty, crowning the subcylindric tube of the Corol. Fulwah, Phulwarah, or Phulwa4, of the inhabitants of the Almorah ills, where the tree is indigenous. Flowering time, in its native soil, the month of January; seeds ripe in August. Trunk of the larger trees, straight, and about five or six feet in circumference. Bark of the young branches smooth, brown, and marked with small ash-coloured specks. Leaves alternate, about the ends of the branchlets, petioled, obovate-cuneate, obtuse-pointed, entire; smooth above, villous underneath; veins simple, and parallel; length, six to twelve inches; breadth, three to six. Petioles, from one to two inches long. Flowers numerous, round the base of the young shoots, and from the axils of the lower leaves, peduncled, large, pale-yellow, drooping. Calyx, four, five, or six leaved (five is by far the most common number); ovate, obtuse, covered externally with ferruginous pubescence, permanent. Corol; tube subcylindric, length of the calyx; border of eight, spreading, oblong, obtuse divisions, longer than the tube. Stamens; filaments from thirty to forty, about as long as the tube of the corol, and inserted on its mouth. Anthers linear-oblong. Pistil, germ conical, (ten or twelve celled, one seeded,) downy, surrounded with a downy nectarial ring. Style longer than the stamens; stigma acute. Berry oblong, generally pointed by a remaining portion of the style; smooth, fleshy, containing one, two, or three, rarely more, large seeds; the rest not ripened. Seeds oblong, rather round than flat, but differing in shape according to the number contained in each fruit; smooth, shining, light brown, with a long, lanceolate, lighter coloured, less smooth, umbilical mark on the inside. This tree, which is rendered interesting on account of its seeds yield Stipules, if any, minute and ca- ing a firm butyraceous substance, re ducous. VOL. XLIX. sembles Bassia Latifolia, (see Coro 3 H mande mandel Plants, Volume I, No. 19, also Asiatic Researches, Volume 1, page 300,) so much as scarce to be distinguished from it, except by the corol and stamina. Here in Bassia butyracea) the corol is of a thin texture, with a tube nearly cylindric, and border of eight, large, spreading, oblong segments. There (in Bassia latifolia) it is thick and fleshy, with a gibbous, indeed alnost globular tube; and border of generally more than eight, small, cordate, rather incurved segments. Here, the stamina, from thirty to forty in number, have long filaments inserted on the mouth of the tube of the corol. There they are fewer in number; bave very short filaments, and are arranged in two, or three series, completely within the tube, to which they are affixed. It may not be improper to notice here some other species of the sanie genus. The following botanical description of Bassia longifolia. Linn. Mant. page 563, I have been favoured with by Doctor Klein, of Tranquebar, and the account of its economical uses by the Reverend Doctor John, of the same place. Description by Doctor Klein. Calyx, Perianth: monophyllum, 4-partitum; laciniis ovatis, acutis, coriaceis, extus tomento ferrugineo obductis, persistentibus. Corolla monophylla, campanulata; tubo cylindraceo, inflato, carnoso, limbo S-partito; laciniis lanceolatis, erectis. Stamina filamenta 16, brevissima, in duos ordines divisa, quorum octo *ad incisuras laciniarum, octo in tubo corollæ inserta. Anthera lineares, setaceæ, aculæ, extus pilosa, limbo breviores. 1st. The oil, pressed from the ripe fruit, is used as a common lamp oil, by those who cannot afford to buy the oil of the cocoa-nut. It is thicker, burus longer, but dimmer, smokes a little, and gives some disagreeable smell. 2d. It is a principal ingredient in making the country soap, and, therefore, often bears the same price with the oil of the cocoa-nut. 3d. It is, to the common people, a substitute for ghee, and cocoa-nut oil, in their curries and other dishes. They make cakes of it, and many of the poor get their livelihood by selling these sweet oil cakes. 4th. It is used to heal different eruptions, such as the itch, &c. 5th. The cake (or Sakey) is used for washing the head; and is carried as a petty article of trade, to those countries, where these trees are not found. 6th. The flowers, which fall in May, are gathered by the common people, dried in the sun, roasted, and eaten, as good food. They are also bruised, and boiled to a jelly, and made into small balls, which they sell ell or exchange, for fish, rice, and arious sorts of sinall grain. 7th. The ripe fruit, as well as the uripe, is eaten by the poor, as other ruits. Of the unripe, the skin is taen off, and after throwing away the inripe kernel, boiled to a jelly, and aten with salt and capsicum. 8th. The leaves are boiled with water, and given as a medicine, in everal diseases, both to men, and to attle. 9th. The milk of the green fruit, and of the tender bark, is also administered as a medicine. 10th. The bark is used as a remedy for the itch. 11th. The wood is as hard and durable as teak wood, but not so easily wrought, nor is it procurable of such a length for beams, and planks, as the former; except in clay ground, where the tree grows to a considerable height; but, in such a soil, it produces fewer branches, and is less fruitful, than in a sandy, or mixed soil, which is the best suited for it. In a saudy soil, the branches shoot out nearer to the ground, and to a greater circumference, and yield more fruit. These trees require but little attention; beyond watering them during the first two or three years, in the dry season. Being of so great use, we have here whole groves of them, on high, and sandy grounds, where no other fruit trees will grow. 12th. We may add, that the owls, squirrels, lizards, dogs and jackals, Jake a share of the flowers; but the vulgar belief is, that the latter, especially in the time of blossom, are apt to grow mad, by too much feed ing on them. Bassia obovata, Forster's prod. No 200: a native of the isle of Tanna, in the South Sea. Of this species, I possess no other account than the definition, which corresponds with the habit of the genus. If Forster has left us no account of the uses of the tree, it may be worth while to make enquiry, when an opportunity offers. Park's Shea, or butter tree of Africa, we have reason, from his description, and figure, as well as from analogy, to suppose a species of this same genus. At page 352 (of his travels in the interior of Africa) he says, "The appearance of the fruit evidently places the Shea tree in the natural order of Sapotæ, (to which Bassia belongs,) and it has some resemblance to the Madhuca tree (Bassia latifolia), described by Lieutenant C. Hamilton, in the Asiatic Researches, Volume I, page 300. "The people were every where employed in collecting the fruit of the Shea trees, from which they prepare a vegetable butter, mentioned in the former part of this work *. These trees grow in great abundance all over this part of Bambarra. They are not planted by the natives, but are found growing naturally in the woods; and in clearing woodland for cultivation, every tree is cut down but the Shea. The tree itself very much resembles the American oak, and the fruit, from the kernel of which, first dried in the sun, the butter is prepared, by boiliug the kernel 3 H 2 in This commodity, Shea toulou, which, literally translated, signifies Tree-butter, is extracted, by means of boiling water, from the kernel of the nut, has the consistence and appearance of butter; and is in truth an admirable substitute for it. It forms an important article in the food of the natives, and serves also for every domestic purpose in which oil would otherwise be used. The demand for it is therefore great. Park's Travels in Africa. Page 26. in water, has somewhat the appearance of a Spanish olive. The kernel is enveloped in a sweet pulp, under a thin green rind; and the butter produced from it, besides the advantage of its keeping the whole year without salt, is whiter, firmer, and to my palate, of a richer flavour, than the best butter I ever tasted made of cows milk. The growth and preparation of this commodity, seem to be amongst the first objects of African industry, in this and the neighbouring states; and it constitutes a main article of their inland commerce." Park's Travels in Africa, page 202-3. Ti the following account of the Bassia Butyracea, by Mr. Gott, we find the people of Almorah eat the dregs, left after the finer parts have been extracted; consequently there can be little doubt of the wholesomeness of the pure vegetable butter it self. The thick oil of the Bassia letifolia, and longifolia, the natives of various parts of India either use alone, or mixed with ghee (clarified butter) in their diet. The same sample, which I got fro Captain Hardwicke, in January 1802 I have still by me. It remains pe fectly sweet, both in taste and sell Its flavour is that of cloves; Lavng I presume, been perfumed with th spice, previously to its falling into hands, a practice mentioned in the following narrative. At this insta the thermometer is at ninety-fre and for these six weeks, it has rare been below ninety, and has ofte risen to one hundred, or more, yet continues about as firm as butter in England during winter. Mr. Gott's account of the tree and its product, is as follows: The tree producing a fat-like substance, known in this country by the name of Phulwah, is a native of the Almorah hills, and known there by the same name. The tree is scarce, grows on a strong soil, on the decis vities of the southern aspects of the hills below Almorah, generally attaining the height, when full grown, & fifty feet, with a circumference of s The bark, of such specimens as I ha been able to obtain, is inclined: smoothness, and speckled; it flower in January, and the seed is perke about August, at which time the lives collect them, for the purpose o extracting the above substance. O opening the shell of the seed or aut, which is of a fine chesnut colour, smooth, and brittle, the kernel appears of the size and shape of a blanched almond: the kernels are bruised, on a smooth stone, to the consistency of cream, or of a fine pulpy matter; which is then put into a cloth bag, with a moderate weight laid on, and left to stand, till the oil. or fat, is expressed, which becomes immediately of the consistency of hog's-lard, and is of a delicate white ...colour. Its uses are in medicine; On Captain Hardwicke's departure for England, in the beginning of 1803, he gave me a small quantity of the above-mentioned substance, observing, that the only account he could give me of it was, that it was reported to him to be a vegetable product from Almorah, or its neighbourhood, where it is called Fulwah, or Phulwarah. In consequence of this information, I applied to Mr. Gott, (who is stationed in the vicinity of that country,) to make the necessary inquiries; and from him I procured an abundance of well preserved specimens, at various times, in leaf, flower, and fruit. From these, and that gentleman's account of the tree, and its product, the foregoing description was taken. |