SHORT NOTES. 27 



SHORT NOTES. 



Arabian Plant-Names. — I find in your Journal of Botany (1874, 

 pp. 56, 57) Mr. Jackson's interesting note on Alfa. In reference to 

 this let me observe, first, that the Arabian nomenclature of indigenous 

 plants is by no means more exact than the European. On the con- 

 trary, as might be expected from the very wide range of this lan- 

 guage, the same name is used for very different plants in different 

 countries. Thus Markh or Merhh signifies in Egypt Leptadenia 

 pyrotechnica, and in the Algerian Sahara Genida SalmrcB (cf. Duveyrier, 

 " LesTouaregduNord," p. 161) ; Toorfatz, aname used in North Africa 

 for Truffle (^adopted in scientific nomenclature under the spelling of 

 Terfezia), means in the Libyan Oases Cistanche lutea (cf. Ascherson, in 

 Rohlf's " Quer durch Africa," ii., 284). On the other hand the same 

 plant is difi'erently named in different districts. Thus the well-known 

 Salvadora pcrsica, recommended to the faithful by the Prophet 

 Mahomet for its wood, which is used for tooth-brushes, has different 

 names, even in Arabian, in different tracts of its very large area, ex- 

 tending from Senegal beyond the Indus. In Arabia, Egypt, «&c., it is 

 called Rah; in Central Africa, Suak (cf. Ascherson, Bot. Zeit., 

 1875, where I pointed out the confusion originated by the late R. 

 Brown's unlucky conjecture that the Suak was Capparis Sodada). 

 In the Hal/a question the former observation is applicable. There 

 is no doubt that the Alfa of European commerce may be exclusively 

 Macrochloa tenacissima ; Lygeum Spartum, however, is known, even in 

 some places of North Africa under the same name, used for the latter 

 with preference in the Tripolitan provinces (cf. Duveyrier, 1. c., 201, 

 203). In Egypt ^«//'« does not mean Ampelodestnos tenax, as Mr. E. G. 

 Lloyd states. I do not know any record of the occurrence of this grass 

 in Egypt, but the name is in general use in that country for Ara- 

 grostis cynosuroides, P. B. {Leptochloa bipinnata, Hochst., Cynosurus 

 dunes, Forsk. (non L.), who quotes the Arabian name, Chaljl (Fl. 

 Aeg. Arab., Ix.), or H half e (1. c, 21). As to the name Diss (or Dees, 

 as it must be spelt more conformably to Arabian pronunciation), it is 

 like Haifa used for different tall and coarse reed-like grasses and similar 

 plants. In Algeria and the adjacent regions it means Imperata 

 cylindrica ; in the Libyan Oases, TypTia angustata, Bory et Chaub. — 



P. ASCHEKSON. 



RuMEX HTDROLArATHUM, VAR. LATIFOLIUS, Borrcr, IN EaST CORN- 

 WALL. — On the 2nd August last I discovered a few specimens of a 

 very large Dock on the sandy shore below a low cliff at Downderry, 

 in the parish of St. Germans, E. Cornwall, which altogether looked 

 so peculiar as to make me quite doubtful as to what species to refer 

 them. The root-leaves, from their great size, and the glaucous hue 

 of the upper surface of the mature ones, seemed to suggest R, Hydro- 

 lapathum, but a more careful examination showed they differed from 

 those of the ordinary form by having a more or less cordate base to 

 their unequal sides. Then the possibility of the plant being R. 

 maxinms, Schreb., R. Hydrolapathum, var. latifolius, Borr., occurred to 

 me, but I felt unable to form a decided opinion on the matter, as I 

 had never seen a specimen of that Dock. More recently, however, 



