Dr. Aknott's Notice of the Species of Salvadora. 159 



the fruit of his own persica. Assuredly Garcin does not say that the 

 berries are not red, but that they pass from green to purple, and then to 

 red. Wight seems to have copied the colours from Forskaol, as quoted 

 in Eoemer and Schultes' Systema; and Irby and Mangles, in their travels 

 between the southern extremity of the Dead Sea and Kerak, met with 

 probably the same bearing a fruit resembling the currant in appearance, 

 but with the colour of a plum. As the colour seems to depend on the 

 maturity of the berries, it is not perhaps of much consequence. Wight says 

 of his plant that the flowers are sessile, and the panicles terminal and com- 

 pact. To this there is nothing opposing in Garcin 's description, although 

 it is not so precise as could be wished. If, however, any dependance is 

 to be placed on the shape of the foliage, on which Dr. Wight relies, his 

 plant cannot be 2y>'eciseli/ the original S. jyersica. 



Again, as to Roxburgh's species, the usual form of the leaves perfectly 

 accords with Garcin 's description ; so that, as far as can be determined 

 from the foliage, the presumption is strong that the species widely distri- 

 buted throughout India is the same as that from the Gulf of Persia ; and 

 confirmatory of this view I may add, that the name kJmrJal, given to this 

 species in the north of India, is almost the same as khardal (mustard), by 

 which latter appellation the mustard-tree of Palestine was known to the 

 Talmudists, and is still known in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, accord- 

 ing to M. Ameuny. But etymologies are not much to be trusted to in 

 the discrimination of allied species, all with similar properties ; and a diffi- 

 culty of some importance lies in this : — Garcin states that the fruit is 3-4 

 lines in diameter, whereas the fruit of all the known East Indian species 

 is considerably smaller than that; and although no great stress can be laid 

 on the size, still it is an element not to be entirely overlooked. In neither 

 the S. jKi'sica of Roxburgh nor of Wight is the fruit larger than a grain 

 of black pepper. Besides, in Garcin's plant the fruit is on a strong thick 

 pedicel, the length of which is not noticed ; in Roxburgh's plant the pedi- 

 cel is by no means thick, but rather slender. In Wight's S. jyersica, how- 

 ever, it is certainly thick, at least in proportion to its length. Thus, then, 

 Garcin's description agrees with Roxburgh's species and not with Wight's 

 as to the leaves, but more with Wight's than with Roxburgh's as to the 

 inflorescence, while the size of the berry accords with neither. 



Hitherto I do not possess, and have not been able to see any specimens 

 of the Persian plant, or of that from Arabia, or the one from Palestine. 

 As to that from Arabia, however, Forskaol describes it with oblong entire 

 thick leaves, sessile flowers, and a berry larger than a pea, and this accords 

 very well with the Persian one. I have no doubt of the identity of these 

 two. Again, Delile found a species in Egypt, of which he has unfortu- 

 nately not given a figure or detailed dcscrijjtion; but of the Egyptian 

 form I have a specimen collected by Raddi, in which the leaves vary from 

 oval to ovate, and the flowers are almost quite sessile, thus agreeing with 

 Forskaol's description (except as to the fruit, which I have not seen). 

 This corroborates the opinion that the plants from Persia, Arabia, Pales- 



