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Indica,' and comments on some of the statements therein contained. 

 Thus, for example, Ainslie says that " all of this gum-resin found in 

 India is brought from Arabia, where the tree is called Dowm ;" but 

 Dr. Nicholson states that wherever the tree is found in the North- 

 western provinces, the bazaars are supplied with the gum from it; and 

 that he never heard the tree called Dowm in Arabia, although he has 

 been in many parts of that country, where he has seen the Googul. 

 Dr. Ainslie again quotes Sprengel, who erroneously states that Dowm 

 is the Arabic name for Borassus flabelliformis, and cites Kaempfer and 

 Ruraphius in proof that Bdellium is procured from that tree ; but Dr. 

 Nicholson believes the Arabic name Doom to be exclusively applied. 

 to the dividing-stemmed palm {HyphcBne Thebaica, Gaertn.), which 

 is common on the banks of the Nile, in the Thebaid and Upper 

 Egypt, two or three trees of which he has seen growing at Mocha, 

 and a single tree at the west end of the native village opposite to the 

 Portugese settlement in the Island of Diu in Kattiawar. He has fre- 

 quently examined this palm without detecting any gum ; and it is 

 well known in India that the Tari [Borassus flabelliformis) does not 

 produce gum. Another palm [Chamcerops humilis, L.) has been also 

 affirmed to produce Bdellium, and Matthiolus is quoted as having 

 witnessed the fact at Naples ; but Dr. Nicholson states that he parti- 

 cularly examined this Chamserops at Girgenti in Sicily in all stages 

 of its growth, in flower, in fruit, and without either, and never observed 

 anything like gum. 



After refuting these erroneous notions as to the origin of the gum. 

 Dr. Nicholson proceeds to state that he met with the Googul plant for 

 the first time in 1832 on the Hills of Balmeer, in the Chotee Thur or 

 Little Desert, on taking and sacking which town large quantities of 

 the gum were found in several of the Banyan houses. The bush is 

 also plentiful about Joolmaghur, thirteen miles south-west from Bal- 

 meer ; and tjie author has observed it on the Kulinjur Hills in Parkur, 

 as well as on those of several parts of Kutch and Wangeer. Having 

 been shipwrecked in 1836 on the southern coast of Arabia, about 200 

 miles east of Cape Furtash, and being carried by the Arabs to the 

 town of Geda, about three miles distant from the coast, he observed 

 that large quantities of the gum Googul, there called Aflatoon, were 

 brought to Geda by the Bedouins from the interior, where he was 

 informed that the tree producing it was very plentiful, and that the 

 gum is annually carried thence to Mocha on camels, and exported 

 from Mocha to Bombay and other places. He subsequently found 

 the Googul bush on the hills of Yemen, and in 1841 on the hills 

 VOL. IV. 3 M 



