COMPARATIVE VIEW. 150
indigenous to the shores and islands of equinoctial Asia, is yet the only species of its genus that does not belong exclu- sively to America.
Cytisiis Cajci?!, may be supposed to have been introduced from India. This plant, Avhich is very generally cultivated in the vicinity of the Congo, I conclude is the Voando, mentioned by Captain Tuckey as being ripe in October ; and as Mr. Lockhart understood from the natives, that Cytisus Cajan continues to bear for three years, it is pro- bably Merolla's Ovvando, of which he gives a similar account.^
Whether AracJns hjporjcea be indigenous or introduced, cannot now perhaps be satisfactorily determined. This remarkable plant, whose singular structure and economy were first correctly described by M. Poiteau,^ and which was every where seen in abundance, as far as the river was examined, appears to form an important article of cultiva- tion along the whole of the west coast of Africa, and proba- bly also on the east coast, on several parts of which it was found by Loureiro.^
According to the same author, it is also universally culti- vated in China and Cochinchina.
From China it has probably been introduced into the 1473 continent of India, Ceylon, and the Malayan Archipelago, where, though now generally cultivated, there is reason to believe, particularly from the names given to it, that it is not indigenous. I think it not very iniprol)able that it may have been carried from Africa to various parts of equinoctial America, though it is noticed in some of the early accounts of that continent, especially of Peru and Brazil.
According to Professor Sprengel,"* it is mentioned by Theophrastus as cultivated in Egypt : but it is by no means evident that Arachis is the plant intended in the passage of Theophrastus referred to ; and it is probable that had it been formerly cultivated in Egypt, it would still l)c found in that country ; it is not, however, included either in
^ Piccardo llelaz. ;>. 120. - Mem. dc V Instil. Sc. Phi/s. Sai\ Elrang. ],/?. 453. ^ Ilor. Cochin. 430. ■» Hist, ltd Herb. },p. 98.
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