Li una an Society. 461 



cavity, called Lagbi, which is very refreshing and slightly purgative. 

 A few hours afterwards the fluid begins to ferment, becomes acid 

 and very intoxicating. (The sap is not tapped, as Dr. Gumbrecht 

 has stated in Wappau's ' Handbuch der Geographie und Statistik,' 

 Band ii. p. 57, 7th edition.) From the ripe fruit a syrup is prepared, 

 used especially for making leather-pipes oil-tight, and also for distil- 

 ling a brandy called arogi." 



After giving many other details concerning the date-palm, Dr. 

 Vogel proceeds thus : — "I have taken great care to note down the 

 southern limits of the fruit-trees, and I will give you the result 

 of my observations. In Tripoli there are oranges, lemons, pista- 

 chios, pomegranates, figs, St. John's bread, mulberries, peaches, 

 apricots, almonds, olives, opuntias, and grapes in great abundance. 

 Apples and pears are rather plentiful, but of poor flavour. The best 

 varieties of pears degenerate in a very few years. Cherry-trees there 

 are three ; one of them stood in the garden in which my people 

 were located, and I gathered from it six cherries. Melons and 

 water-melons arrive at great perfection, and the latter I have seen 

 weighing as much as 150 lbs. They are sown on the hard hills of 

 the desert, and the young plants are protected from the sun by 

 boughs ; they require no artificial irrigation, the heavy dew being 

 sufficient for their growth. Potatoes also succeed in Tripoli ; the 

 tubers are very large, and have a fine flavour. Chestnuts there are 

 none. Of the above-mentioned fruits the following go as far south 

 as Mourzouk (lat. 25° 55'), viz. pomegranates, figs, peaches, almonds 

 and grapes. The vine succeeds extremely well on the shores of the 

 natron lakes of Fezzan ; the branches of this plant have very small 

 leaves, and climb over pomegranates and fig-trees ; the most com- 

 mon grapes are the black varieties ; the white are scarce. A few 

 apple-trees are found in Wadi Schati (about 26° 30' N.L.), but 

 their fruit is unfit for use. Oranges, lemons, pistachios, and St. 

 John's bread do not go further than the Targona Mountains ; they 

 are confined to a district of about fifty miles from the coast. The 

 olive-tree is not found beyond Benoulid, on the southern slope of 

 the Targona Mountains (31° 44' N.L.), and at the same place is 

 found the last Opuntia vulgaris. The mulberry-tree goes as far 

 south as Soknu (29° 4 1 ), the apricot a? far as Sebha (27° 3'). A 

 group of about fifty olive-trees is found, it is true, near the village 

 of Abiad, in Wadi Cherbi (27° N.L.), but they bear no fruit. Cotton 

 is seen here and there in gardens, commencing at Bondjem, (both 

 Gossypium arboreum and herbaceum,) but the state of the soil does not 

 admit of its being extensively cultivated. The vine is said to grow 

 w r ild in Tripolitania, but that statement must be incorrect ; I have 

 never seen it except cultivated." 



[February 7. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Read a " Note on the Elaters of Trichia." By Arthur Henfrey, 

 Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



After referring to observations by Hedvvig, Kaulfuss and Corda, 

 asserting the existence of spiral fibres in the filamentous elaters 



