Dk. Aenott's Notice of the Species of Salvadora. 155 



XIX. — Notice of the species of Salvadora. By G. A.Walker Abnott, LL.D. 



The genus Salvadora possesses a peculiar interest, from its having been 

 generally agreed of late years that one of the species is the tr/i/a-r/, or 

 mustard plant of Scripture. The proof of this hypothesis being correct, 

 was first analysed by Dr. Eoyle. (See the Gardener's Chronicle for 

 1844, p, 199; Atheiueum for 1844, p. 272; and Kitto's Biblical Cyclo- 

 paedia, ii. p. 772). 



Botanically speaking, the genus was proposed by M. Garcin of Neuf- 

 . cbatel for a plant found near the shores of the Persian Gulf, and described 

 in the Philosophical Transactions for 1749. Although the calyx was 

 omitted, and the corolla mistaken for it, the original description was 

 sufl5ciently accurate to enable Linnseus, and afterwards Vahl, to refer 

 plants from East India and Arabia to it. Of the old descriptions, the 

 most correct is that given by Vahl. He considers the Persian plant, the 

 East Indian, and the Arabian, (mentioned by Forskaol under the name of 

 Cissius arborea,') to be one and the same sjjecies, and retains the name of 

 S. persica given by Garcin. 



The first figures of Salvadora I find are in Lamarck's Illustrations des 

 Genres, t. 81, and Vahl's Symbols Botanicas, t. 4, both published about 

 the same time, and both representing the common East Indian plant. 

 Then follows the figure in Roxburgh's Coromandel Plants, t. 26, and this 

 of course also exhibits the East Indian form. Of the original Persian 

 plant no figure exists, nor is there any of the Arabian one, or, which is 

 probably the same, of an Egyptian species ; for the latter, the figure in 

 Bruce's Travels, v. t. 12, of a tree he calls Rack, is quoted by Delile in 

 his Flore d'Egypte ; but Bruce's plant is unquestionably a species of 

 Avicennia, as was long ago indicated by Brown in his Prodronus Flor. 

 Nov. Holl, p. 519. 



To the S. persica Loureiro added two species from Cochin-China, viz., 

 S. capUulaia and S. hijiora ; but as these two are destitute of a corolla, 

 have alternate rough serrated leaves, and flowers at the extremity of a 

 long axillary peduncle, they can have no affinity with Salvadora, or any 

 allied genus ; what they may be I do not here conjecture. 



The next addition to the genus was made by A. Sprengel, but the 

 plant he describes, from Surinam, belongs to the Myrsinaceae, and is the 

 Weigdlia Suriruwiensis of Alphonse De Candolle. 



Thus, then, all the forms mentioned, that really belong to the genus, 

 have been reduced to *S'. jyersica of authors; but this species may possibly 

 be made up of several, and in that case, in order to determine the true 

 mustard tree of the Bible, it is necessary to ascertain which is the species 

 found in Palestine. 



The first, so far as I know, who indicated two positively distinct species 

 of the genus, was Dr. Royle, in his work on Himalayan plants. He there 

 says — " Salvadora is a genus common to India, Persia, and Arabia, and 

 the same species (<S'. 2iersica) occurs in the Circars, north of India, and 



