448 DICTIONAKY OF POPULAR NAMES ZAMAXG 



short axillary racemes ; the fruit is about the size of a walnut, 

 and when ripe of a greenish colour. It is common through- 

 out the deserts of Western Asia, Egypt, and many parts 

 of North and Western Africa. It also otows abundantly 

 in the region of the Dead Sea, and has extended into India, 

 and may be called truly a plant of the desert. It is supposed 

 to be one of the plants that yielded the balm of Gilead carried 

 by the Ishmeelites into Egypt. In Palestine, at the present day, 

 the oil obtained from its fruit is of a healing nature, and is 

 extensively prepared by the Arabs, and sold by them to the 

 pilgrims. The wood is hard, and used by the turners of 

 Jerusalem for making walking-sticks. In Western Africa 

 an intoxicating drink is made from its fruit. 



Zamang, the Spanish name of a tree, native of Venezuela, 

 of which Humboldt says — " We saw in the evening, at a league 

 distant, an object which appears in the horizon like a round 

 hillock covered with trees. It is neither a hill nor a group of trees 

 close to each other, but one single tree, the famous Zamang-del- 

 C^zirtyre, remarkable for the enormous extent of its branches, which 

 form a hemispheric head 576 feet in circumference, the diameter 

 of the stem being 9 feet near the ground." It belongs to the 

 Mimosa section of Leguminosae, and is a species of the genus 

 Fithccolohium [P. saman). Seeds taken from the tree were raised 

 in the Botanic Garden, Trinidad, in 1820 ; it appears to be fast- 

 growing when young, a tree 40 years old measuring 15 feet in 

 circumference near the ground. It has thick, flattish, curved 

 pods, about 8 inches in length and 1 in width, containing a 

 sweetish pulp ; they are in common use for feeding cattle, and 

 for that purpose the tree is now cultivated in different countries. 

 It is also known as the Eain Tree. 



Zamia, a name of the genus of the Cycad family (Cycada- 

 cese). They have globose cylindrical stems, the interior of which 

 is soft and spongy, increasing in height by the successive yearly 

 development of a crown of winged leaves, the pinn^ of which 

 are firm and rigid, entire, toothed, or spiny. The fructification 

 consists of male and female cones, produced on separate plants, 



