Bot. [mod. L. f. Adanson, name of a Fr. naturalist in 1794.] A genus of gigantic trees (N. O. Bombaceæ) containing only two species, of which one is the Baobab, Monkey-bread, or Ethiopian Sour Gourd of W. and Central Africa; and the other the Cream of Tartar Tree, or Sour Gourd of N. Australia.
1852. T. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., I. ii. 62. The Adansonia or baobab of Senegal, [is] one of the oldest inhabitants of our globe.
1866. A. A. Black, in Treas. Bot., 17. The Adansonia has, until lately, been considered the largest tree in the world, but it must now give place to the mammoth tree of California (Wellingtonia gigantea).
