NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 87 



experience cannot fail to reap a rich harvest ; and the little that is 

 at present known of the botany of that great island warrants the 

 expectation of many interesting and important discoveries.] 



Hildebrandt left Berlin on the 5th March, 1872, and after a 

 short stay in Egypt went fid Djiddah, Hodeidah, and Mochah, to 

 Aden, which he reached in June, 1872. Here he used the opportunity 

 of a passage in a vessel of the English navy to visit Massua, where 

 he arrived in July. At this place he made the acquaintance of 

 Munzinger-Bey, who was about to depart to the countries on the 

 northern boundary of Abyssinia on a military expedition to seize 

 Bogos at the command of Egypt, and who invited Hildebrandt to 

 accom^Dany him. Acce^Dting this invitation Hildebrandt travelled 

 from July to October, 1872, through the countries of Habab, Bogos, 

 Bedjuk, andAz-Temmariam, and made from them a rich collection 

 of objects of Natural History. The botanical part of these 

 contained, besides the remarkable Hydnora ahyssinica, A. Br., a 

 number of new species {Crotalaria emanjinella, Vatke, Heliotropium 

 abyssinicum , Vatke, H. Steudneri, Vatke, Astephanus Sddmperi., 

 Vatke). A description of this journey, by the author himself, will 

 be found in the ' Zeitschrift d. Ges. fiir Erdkunde zu Berlin,' 

 Jahrg. 1875, i)p, 449-470 (with a map ; comx^are also Just, 

 'Botan. Jahresber.' ii., 1874, p. 1154, No. 149). Communications 

 on the agriculture and cattle-breeding of Abyssinia were also 

 published by Hildebrandt in the Berlin ' Zeitschi'. f. Ethnologic,' 

 Bd. vi., 1874, pp. 318-340. 



Having returned m October, 1872, to Massua, Hildebrandt 

 visited the volcanic peninsula Buri, and then set out by ship to 

 Aden. At Hamfale he landed, and visited tho Salt Plain of 

 Eagad, two hundred feet beneath sea-level (west of Eagad), and 

 climbed Oerteale, the first African volcano ascertained to be still 

 active. Comx^elled by want of stores to give up his land expedition, 

 Hildebrandt proceeded with his voyage. After putting into Assab 

 Bay he came to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and once more 

 touched Arabian ground at Eac-Arar, whence he travelled by 

 Camel to Aden.* Hildebrandt has described the excursion to the 

 Salt Plain of Eagad in the ' Zeitschr. d. Ges. f. Erdkunde zu 

 Berlin,' Bd. x., 1875, pp. 1-38. Among the plants collected at 

 Aden, besides those characteristic of the flora of the place, such 

 as Euphorbia systyla, Edgew. (which also occurs on the Somali 

 coast), Saltia j^ctpposa, Moq.-Tand., &c., there was found a new 

 Heliotropium (H. paradoxum , Vatke). 



Hildebrandt then undertook two excursions from Aden to the 

 Somali coast, — one short one to Berbera and Bulbar, and the 

 other longer to Lasgori. From the latter place, situated in the 

 district of Wer-Singelli-Somal, he visited the Ahl mountains, of 

 which the limestone ridges, reaching a height of two thousand 

 metres, possess a XDarticularly interesting flora, which shows some 

 analogies to the vegetation of South Arabia, but is, on the other 



* The plants (about one hundred and twenty in number) of this portion of the 

 journey were unfortunately washed away and lost. [Ed. Journ. Bot.] 



