Adansonia Digitata
The baobab tree, a native of Africa. It has
been called the tree of a thousand years, and Humboldt speaks of
it as "the oldest organic monument of our planet." Adanson, who
traveled in Senegal in 1794, made a calculation to show that
one
of these trees, 30 feet in diameter, must be 5,150 years old. The
bark of the baobab furnishes a fiber which is made into ropes and
also manufactured into cloth. The fiber is so strong as to give
rise to a common saying in Bengal, "as secure as an elephant bound
with baobab rope." The pulp of the fruit is slightly acid, and the
juice expressed from it is valued as a specific in putrid and
pestilential fevers. The ashes of the fruit and bark, boiled in
rancid palm oil, make a fine soap.
Previous: Acrocomia Sclerocarpa
Next: Adenanthera Pavonina
|
|
| SHARE | |
 |
|
| ADD TO EBOOK |
