[8] “The largest tree in the world is the Adansonia or Baobab tree, the trunk of which has been found with a diameter of thirty feet; but its height is not in proportion. It is emollient and mucilaginous in all its parts. The leaves dried and reduced to powder constitute _Lalo_, a favourite article with the Africans, which they mix daily with their food, for the purpose of diminishing the excessive perspiration to which they are subject in those climates; and even Europeans find it serviceable in cases of diarrhœa, fevers, and other maladies. The fruit is, perhaps, the most useful part of the tree. Its pulp is slightly acid and agreeable, and frequently eaten; while the juice is expressed from it, mixed with sugar, and constitutes a drink which is valued as a specific in putrid and pestilential fevers.”—_Hooker’s Bot. Mag._ 2792. “The dried pulp is mixed with water, and administered in Egypt in dysentery. It is chiefly composed of a gum, like gum senegal, a sugary matter, starch, and an acid, which appears to be malic.”—_Delile Cent._ 12. _Quoted in Lindley’s Int. to the Nat. Syst. of Botany._ [9] (In June, 1831.) “Canary orchilla fetches in the London market from 270_l._ to 290_l._ per ton, while that which is brought from Madeira fetches only 140_l._, and Barbary not more than from 30_l._ to 45_l._ The total quantity imported in 1829, amounted to 1,813 cwt. or 90½ tons.”—“Archil is generally sold in the form of cakes, but sometimes in that of moist pulp.”—_M’Culloch’s Dict. of Commerce._ [10] At the time of our arrival a Portuguese brig was lying in the bay, having a cargo of this weed on board, which was estimated at a low calculation to be worth 30,000_l._ [11] “The dyer’s lichen was first exported from the islands of the Archipelago to Venice, Genoa, France, and England, for the use of the dyers. Towards the commencement of the last century it was discovered in the Canary Islands, and was soon placed among the regalia of the Spanish crown. This excited the attention of the Portuguese, who collected it without restriction in the Cape de Verd Islands, Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Azores. In the year 1730, the Jesuits asked of King John V. the privilege of collecting the _Hervinha secca_; but the crown took the advantage into its own hands, and farmed the right of collecting it. At a later period the lichen was ceded to the mercantile company of Gram Pará and Maranhâo; and, lastly, in the year 1790, the government again took this branch of commerce under its own care, because it had declined considerably under the bad management of the company. At present the exportation is small; but more considerable, however, from the Cape de Verd Isles.” (See I. Da Silva Feijó, in the _Memorias Economicas da Acad. de Lisboa_, vol. v. 1815, p. 143.)—_Spix and Martius Travels in Brazil_, vol. i. p. 125. [12] Abel’s Voyage to, and journey into the interior of, China. 4to. p. 6. [13] Captain Basil Hall. See Fragments of Voyages and Travels.