ADANSONIA

ADANSO'NIA, noun Ethiopian sour gourd, monkey's bread, of African calabash-tree. It is a tree of one species, called baobab, a native of Africa, and the largest of the vegetable kingdom. The stem rises not above twelve or fifteen feet, but is from sixty-five to seventy-eight feet in circumference. The branches shoot horizontally to the length of sixty feet, the ends bending to the ground. The fruit is oblong, pointed at both ends, ten inches in length, and covered with a greenish down, under which is a hard ligneous rind. It hangs to the tree by a pedicle two feet long, and contains a white spungy substance. The leaves and bark, dried and powdered, are used by the negroes, as pepper, on their food, to promote perspiration. The tree is named from M. Adanson, who has given a description of it.

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‖Ad′an‐so″ni‐a (�), n. [[From Adanson, a French botanist.]] (Bot.) A genus of great trees related to the Bombax. There are two species, A. digitata, the baobab or monkey-bread of Africa and India, and A. Gregorii, the sour gourd or cream-of-tartar tree of Australia. Both have a trunk of moderate height, but of enormous diameter, and a wide-spreading head. The fruit is oblong, and filled with pleasantly acid pulp. The wood is very soft, and the bark is used by the natives for making ropes and cloth. D. C. Eaton.