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Par M. Adanson, Correspondant de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, Paris, 1757, 4to. It was night before we reached Cogné. Our route was bordered with gum-trees, the yellow flowers of which, arranged in circular bunches, spread a delicious perfume. We also saw some rates.
The largest tree perhaps in the world is of the same natural order as Kleinhovia, it is the Adansonia, or Ethiopian Sour-gourd, or African Calabash tree. Mr. Adanson says the diameter of the trunk frequently exceeds 25 feet, and the horizontal branches are from 45 to 55 feet long, and so large that each branch is equal to the largest trees of Europe. The breadth of the top is from 120 to 150 feet.
The first of these trees seen by Adanson, were twenty-seven feet in diameter, about eighty-three feet in circumference. Ray says they have been seen thirty feet in diameter, and Goldberry says he saw one of thirty-four feet.
M. Adanson was in this part of Africa, from 1749 to 1753; his chief study and investigation seems to have been directed to conchology; and the descriptions and admirable plates in his book, certainly leave little to be desired on this subject. There are besides remarks on the temperature, productions, economy, and manufactures of the country. Nouvelle Histoire de l'Afrique Française.
I knew that the tree had other names as well as baobab; that the negroes of Senegal call it the "monkey's bread-tree," the "sour gourd," and "lalo plant," and my book had been minute enough to give the botanical name, which is Adansonia so called from a distinguished French botanist, of the name of Adanson, who, long ago, travelled through western Africa, and was the first to describe this wonderful tree.
According to the calculations of Adanson, a tree, twenty-five feet in diameter, must have taken 3750 years to acquire these dimensions, which would allow a foot growth in 150 years, or an in inch in twelve years and a half; but an observation of Goldberry's would quite overturn this calculation.
The migrations of these insects are mentioned in another part of the scripture, "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them in bands," Prov. xxx. 27. The accurate Mr. Adanson, near the river Gambia in Africa, was witness to the migration of these insects.
Adanson, in his Voyage to Senegal, may gain credit with the reader: as his employment in this country was solely to make observations in natural history. On the river Niger, in his road to the island Griel, he saw a great number of pelicans, or wide throats.
The plants, animals, soil, &c. as well as the religion, government, customs, manufactures are also described. Histoire Naturelle du Sénégal. Par M. Adanson. Paris. 1757. 4to.
It was in these parts of Guinea, that M. Adanson, correspondent of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, mentioned in some former publications, was employed from the year 1749, to the year 1753, wholly in making natural and philosophical observations on the country about the rivers Senegal and Gambia.