294 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



THE LOTUS, AND THE STAPELIA. 



" MANY opinions have been given as to the fruit called lotus, de- 

 scribed by Herodotus, Pliny, Theophrastus, and other ancient writers, 

 and which gave its name to a whole people, who were called Loto- 

 phagi. I have received from M. Pelisier, Consul of France at Sous- 

 sa, near Tripoli, specimens of a plant called Nilraria tridentala ; it is 

 a small prickly shrub, agreeing in description with the lotus of the 

 ancients, and, moreover, the fruit is pleasant to the taste, and has a 

 slightly intoxicating property, quite sufficient to make a man forget 

 his country whilst under the influence of it; it is called by the Arabs 

 damouch. I think this plant has greater claims than any other to be the 

 lotus, both from the description of the plant and fruit, and also from 

 its geographical position, the region of the Lotophagi being to the 

 eastward of the kingdom of Algiers. 



" I cannot pass over a new species of Stapelia, named by Decaisne 

 Boucerosia Mumbyana, and discovered by me in the neighborhood of 

 Oran, which is interesting in a geographical point of view ; it is well 

 known that the great seat of Stapelias is at the Cape of Good Hope, and, 

 until lately, only one species occurred in Europe as a representative of 

 this genus; I speak of Stapelia Europ&a, which is found in Sicily, 

 and on the southern coast of Spain. The discovery of an allied species, 

 on an intermediate point, is, I conceive, very interesting, and will in 

 all probability form the second link in a chain which will connect the 

 humble Stapelia Europe? a with the remarkable Cape species." Mr. 

 G. Mumby, before the British Association. 



THE APPLE OF SODOM. 



APRIL 28. We picked up a large piece of bitumen on the sea- 

 shore to-day. It was excessively hot to the touch. We gathered 

 also some of the blossoms and the green and dried fruits of the osher 

 for preservation. The dried fruit, the product of last year, was ex- 

 tremely brittle, and crushed with the slightest pressure. The green, 

 half-formed fruit of this year was soft and elastic as a puff-ball, and 

 like the leaves and stem, yields a viscous, white, milky fluid, when 

 cut. Dr. Robinson very aptly compared it to the milkweed. The 

 Arabs consider this fluid a cure for barrenness. 



This fruit is doubtless the genuine apple of Sodom, for it is fair 

 to the eye and bitter to the taste, and, when ripe, is filled with fibre 

 and dust. Four jars containing specimens are placed in the Patent- 

 Office at Washington. The first notice taken of the apple of Sodom 

 is by Josephus, who says that they have a color as if fit to be eaten, 

 but, if plucked, they dissolve into smoke and ashes. Tacitus mentions 

 them, as does De Chartres in 1100, and, later, Baumgarten and others. 

 Yet many have heretofore derided their accounts as fabulous, and 

 among those who believed them to be true, there has been a great dif- 

 ference of opinion as to the class of fruit to which the apple of Sodom 

 belongs. One considered it the fruit of a hawthorn, and another, of a 

 species of solarium, and with this opinion Linnreus agreed. Others re- 



