The gúro, or kóla nut, which constitutes one of the greatest luxuries of Negroland, is also a most important article of trade. Possessing this, the natives do not feel the want of coffee, which they might so easily cultivate to any extent, the coffee plant seeming to be indigenous in many parts of Negroland. The gúro which is brought to the market of Timbúktu is imported from the provinces of Tangréra, the town which was touched at by M. Caillié on his journey from Sierra Leone to Morocco, and of Teuté and Káni, to the south of Timé; while the gúro which is brought to the market of Kanó is imported from the northern province of Asanti; and the trees which furnish these different kinds of kóla nuts do not belong to the same species, being distinguished as _Sterculia acuminata_, or the red kóla nut, and _Sterculia macrocarpa_, or the white kóla nut; although the variety appears merely to apply to the seed, the fruit of the latter kind being generally of larger size, while both flower and leaf are quite identical. But there is a good deal of variety in the character of the gúro nut of each of these two species; and in Kanó four different kinds are distinguished, according to the size of the fruit; namely, the guríye, the largest fruit, which often measures an inch and a half, and sometimes even nearly two inches in diameter, and is sold at a very high price; secondly, the marsakátu; in the third place, the sára-n-wága; and fourth, the ménu. But this is not all. There is a further distinction of three kinds, according to the season when the fruit is gathered: first, the já-n-karágu, the first gúro, which is collected about the end of February, but spoils easily, like the takdúf among the dates; secondly, the gammagári, collected at a later season, when the greater part of the fruit is ripe, and remaining from three to four months on the tree, being regarded by the Arabs as corresponding to those kind of dates called tásfirt; and lastly, there is the náta, the rest of the gúro, and of small size, which does not spoil. As for the gúro sold in Timbúktu, I had no opportunity of observing so many different varieties, but only became aware of three distinctions being made, viz. the tinóro, or Tíno-úro, “úro” being the corresponding Songhay name for gúro, and Tíno, or Tína, the name of a district; then the kind called síga; and thirdly, that called fára-fára.