380 



BOTANICAL OIUGIN AND COUNTRY OF MYHRII. 



1873. collected myrrh at all ; and the myrrh of commerce is certainly 



not brought from that neighbourhood. 



Vaughan'a Whence, then, is myrrh brought ? Vaughan, who was port- 

 Adun'myrrh. surgeon at Aden in 1852, says that a little is obtained on the 



south coast of Arabia, about 40 miles to 

 the east of Aden. But this Arabian 

 myrrh, of which I have seen samples, 

 lias not (although pure and clean) exactly 

 the characters of true myrrh, and there 

 is good reason to believe it the produce 

 of another species than that affording the 

 latter. However this may be, the Aden 

 myrrh-tree is wholly unknown to botanists. 

 Vaughan further pointed out that myrrh, 

 which is more commonly known at Aden 

 by its Indian name of Hera-b6l than 

 by its Arabic designation of Mur, is 

 collected in great quantities by the Somali 

 tribes occupying the country between 

 Zeila and Cape Gardafui ; and that it is 

 also brought from Harar (otherwise called Hurrur or Adari), a com- 

 mercial town of the interior, about 175 miles south-west of 

 Zeila. Harar was visited in 1855 by Burton, who describes it as 

 the " great half-way house " for the produce of Efat, Gurague, and 

 the Galla countries. The drug arrives at the great fair of Ber- 

 bera held in November, December, and January, and is brought 

 up by the Banians of India for shipment to Aden and Bombay. 

 Cmtteiiden. Cruttenden,who visited the Somali coast in 1843, and was after- 

 wards assistant political agent at Aden, says myrrh is brought 

 from the Wadi Nogal, a valley debouching into the Indian 

 Ocean, south of Cape Gardafui, in about latitude 8 N., and from 

 its bordering districts of Ogahden, Murreyhan, and Agaliora. 

 He says further that the mountains at the back of Bender Mir- 

 ayeh (a town about 20 miles south-west of Eas Filek, on the 

 Somali Coast) afford it, and that the drug is brought to Bender 

 Mirayeh for sale. 1 



1 Journal of Royal Geographical Society, xix. (184d), 5, C6. 



B. Ehrenbergianum (after Berg). 



