110 
In response to an application made to the India Office, samples 
of the gums of P. Puddura and P. communis were collected in 
the Punjab and forwarded to Kew in July, 1890. These bear 
little resemblance to the Persian gum, though they agree with it 
in being insoluble in water. 
The Museum contains three samples of Persian gum, all 
apparently identical. The oldest sample was received as " Wild 
Almond Gum " so long ago as August, 1854. Another sample 
formed part of 25 bags of " Persian Gum Arabic " imported from 
in the London Drug Sales of June 9th, 1893, 
The third sample was collected by Dr. 0. Stapf in 1885, who says 
of it :— " I may add that I saw a kind of cerasin (gummi nostras) 
" being sold in the bazaars at Shiraz for medicinal purposes. It 
" was called Ketirah-i-Arjen and stated to be derived from the 
" Arjen shrub {Amygdalus leiocarpa, Boiss.). Later I myself 
« collected it from this species on Kuk Chah Sia, north of Shiraz, 
where it was plentiful on the ground underneath a few shrubs 
and also on the stems. A sample of it is in the Museum. It 
looks externally very like Gum Arabic. The same kind of gum 
" is also sold at Kirman under the name of ' Djabd I Ardjan,' 
" whilst it is replaced by the gum of a plum (< S;umrh-^lHrsch'i!i') 
and of a cherry (« Samgh I gllas ') in Ispahan." {See Andreas 
und Stolze in Peterm. Geogr. Mitth. Erganz., B. XVII., II., p. 15.) 
From the notes and material obtained by Dr. Stapf it is evident 
that s.-.m,. if not the greater part of the Persian Gum of commerce 
is derived from Amygdalus leiocarpa, Boiss. 
In the Diplomatic and Consular Report on the trade of Bushire 
tor the year 190o it appears that there is an increasing export of 
gum from that port, as the following figures show — 
XX T^ R St™? 0F POTATO DISEASE" 
S^ffi flffiff " BY "™ 0F 
iX^afi^sSr 81 condition8 favoured the ™v id 
