Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/406

* GUINEA CORN. 358 GUINEA PEPPER. cies of Ponnisetum are cultivated for their orna- mental ai)])earante. See Sorghum, section Sor- dini in, Xon-satckayiue. GUINEA-FOWL. A group of birds, closely allied to the peacock, representing the pheasant family on the continent of Africa, and in part domesticated. The guinea-fowls are usually re- garded as a subfamily (Numidinse), and are separated into several genera, including a dozen species, all natives of Africa and iladagascar. They stand between the pheasants and the tur- keys and jungle - fowls. Nearest the typical pheasants in structure (from which the subfam- ily difTers in having the skin of the head more or less bare and wattled, in the absence of spurs, and in the fact that the plumage of the se.xes is alike) are the crested guinea-fowls of the genus Guttera. They have a jet-black plumage, dotted with small bluish-white or light-green spots, the bare skin of the neck blue, purplish, or scarlet, and the head crowned Ijy a long, full black crest. There is also a ruff about the neck. This genus (or at any rate its best-known species, Guttera cristata, of the Yest African coast) possesses a unique structure in the fact that the head of its wish-bone (the furcula), unlike that in all other Gallinie, is in the form of a hollow cup which opens upward, into which the trachea, or windpipe, dips and emerges again. Another group contains the 'helmcted' guinea-fowls, of which the 'connnon' species (Xinnida melenriria) is the type, the top of whose head is covered with a horny cap or 'casque' rising into a hard crest ; the bare skin on the sides of the face, neck, and chin, as well as the wattles, are red. and the re- mainder of the neck is bluish and bristly. The plumage is black, thickly sprinkled with round white spots, to which the bird is said to owe its specific name., given to it by the Romans in fanciful allusion to the tears shed by the sisters of Ifeleager when he died. Its native home is West-Central Africa. Representing the group in South Africa are Xiiniida roroiinta. a favorite game-bird in Cape Colony, and Xiimida cornnta, more prevalent northeastward. ^Madagascar has a red-crowned species {yiimida mitrata), now- acclimatized and wild in Rodriguez, and Abys- sinia a well-known form (Xiimida ptilorJujncha), without any red on the head, as have all the others, and regarded by Darwin {Aiiitnals and Plants Vndcr Domestication, 1875) as the source of our domestic races. The Xiimida vulturina of Zanzibar differs from all these, and is the finest of the species. Its plumage is dark blue, it has hackles on the lower part of its neck, and a long tail. Some writers believe this species forms a separate genis, Acryllium. Two other allied birds, essentially differing from the type by the possession of sp s on the feet, a*-e the rare black guinea-fowl {Phnsidus nir/er) and the turkey guinea-fowl (Arrclaslcs melenfjride.s) . both of the coast of equatorial West Africa, and little known. All these agree in going about in large and noisy flocks, seeking their food on the ground, but roosting in trees. They are polygamous as a rule, make nests on the ground, and lay many eggs. They furnish good sport, and their flesh is excellent. Domestic !R.ces. Our domestic guinea-fowls are no doubt derived in the main from the Xii- midn mcleaijris above described, and were among the fowls kept by both Greeks and Romans, who also may have domesticated the Abyssinian spe- cies. This fowl disappeared, however, with the decay of Roman civilization, and was reintroduced into Europe, apparently by the Portuguese ex- plorers of Africa, in the sixteenth century. To them we owe the substitution of the name 'guinea- fowl' for the ancient 'meleagris,' which became mixed up with the turkey, whose present names are thus doubly erroneous. It was early intro- duced into the Cape Verde Islands, and also into several of the West Indies, where it soon ran wild. It slowly became conunon in Europe, and thence has spread around the world, but has undergone little change beyond a tendency to albinism. Tliese fowls are not popular, however, on account of their almost incessant and harsh cries, and because they are quarrelsome and dilfi- eult to rear; but the high price commanded in the market by both the birds and their eggs com- pensates those who keep guinea-fowls for profit. The eggs are small, and have a thick, strong shell, but are particularly esteemed. See Pheas- ant, and Colored Plate with Peacock. GUINEA GRASS (Pamciim maximum, or jumentonim). A grass of the same genus as some of the millets, a native of the west of Africa, but now naturalized and extensively cul- tivated in the West Indies and in the Southern United States. Its height in favorable moist situations is from 5 to 10 feet, or even more; in dry grounds it is smaller. It has a much- branched spreading panicle. long flat leaves, and a somewhat creeping rootstock. In countries favorable to its growth it is very valuable cattle food. In such regions, and upon good soil, the amount of forage this grass yields is very great; it may be cut every month. It has some- times been confused with Johnson grass, from which it is distinct. Other species of the same genus are among the most useful pasture and forage grasses of tropical countries. See An- nROPOGON. GUINEA PEPPER. A name variously ap- plied to the seeds of dried fruit of several dif- ferent plants, which agree in their peppery char- acter and in the place of their production — West- ern Africa. The name JIalaguetta ( Malagheta, Jleleguetta, etc.) pepper is generally to be regard- ed as equivalent to Guinea peppier, but ])roperly is a designation of grains of paradise. The capsules of dry berries of Capsicum frutescens are commonly sold by druggists under the name Guinea pepper. Both the names Guinea pep- per and JIalaguetta pepper have been applied to the dried fniit of Piper chisii. and to the seeds of Xylopia .^T.thiopica, a shrub of the nat- ural order Anonace.'c. This last, sometimes called Ethiopian pepper, was at one time a considerable article of export from Guinea, but is now seldom heard of. It is an aromatic and not extremely pungent condiment. There is great difficulty in determining which of these kinds is meant in many instances in which the term Guinea pepper or JIalaguetta pepper is employed by older writers; yet. from the importance of the trade in this article, the name Grain Coast was given to a great tract of land in the Bight of Benin, and to it the establishment of the settlements of Grand Bassa and Cape Palmas is due. Guinea pepper continued in request up to the close of the eigh- teenth century, and then the peppers of the East drove it from the market. See Grains of Pasa- DiSE; Capsicum; Cubeb.