'Specimens, Mozambique, East Coast of Africa', collected by John Forbes

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Title: 'Specimens, Mozambique, East Coast of Africa', collected by John Forbes

Scope & content: Page removed from a notebook and written across both pages

List of specimens collected from Mozambique, numbered (specimens 1-37) [for another copy of this list, Feb-Mar 1823, see RHS/Col/3/4/26], with date, number, class number, order, genus, species and additional remarks. Includes a species of Sida ('18 inches, flower sulphurea, among rubbish & sand'), a species of Spathodea ('15 feet, flower brownish red ['red' crossed out] crimson and green'), a species of Ficus ('50 feet, branches numerous, spreading, forming an agreeable shade, sending out roots. Planted and protected by the natives and Portuguese as a screen from the scorching rays of the sun. The blacks at Mozambique hold their market under these trees') and three species of Coffea ('these three species or varieties of coffee are cultivated in Mozambique, and the coffee they produce is much superior to any grown in any part of India or America, and for which the Portuguese obtain a much higher price. It is more than probable it was originally introduced here and all the other settlements by the Arabs from Arabia, who were in possession of the greater part of this coast when it was first visited by the Portuguese upwards of 300 years ago') [here the list includes 32 more plants]