372 ISATURAL HISTORY 0*" ARABIA. 



The hashish paste is pohtely termed bast (cheerfulness), and 

 the venders of it are called basti, or cheerful-makers. It 

 exhilarates the spirits, and excites the imagination as power- 

 fully as opium. Many persons of the first rank use it in one 

 shape or other ; and there are some who mix with it seeds 

 of the benj, ■v'S'hich is brought from Syria. 



SECTION IV. TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Forests are neither common nor extensive in Arabia ; they 

 are only to be seen in the wadis, and where the hills retain 

 fenough of earth for vegetation. In general, however, trees 

 are either absolutely unknown, or at least different from those 

 of the same genera and species in Europe. As the interior 

 has been little explored by travellers, it is not surprising that 

 we should remain comparatively ignorant of its indigenous 

 productions. But from what Forskal accomplished in his 

 hasty excursion, it would appear that Yemen possesses a 

 great variety of trees, as these alone comprehend more than 

 half of the new genera proposed by that naturalist. He 

 likew^ise enumerates eighteen others which he saw, but whose 

 genus he had no opportunity of ascertaining. Of most of 

 these he merely learned the Arabic names and a few i^f their 

 properties. Noemaiu a native of the Coffee Mountains, is 

 often confounded with the cassia-tree. Bceka and anas are 

 common in the hills ; their juice is narcotic and poisonous. 

 Schumama bears a fruit that tastes and smells like a lemon ; 

 gharib el bcckc abounds in Abu-Arish, and distils an agreeable 

 substance, of which the birds appeared to' be particuhrly 

 fond. Segleg, in the same district, bears leaves, the sap of 

 which when expressed is esteemed an excellent remedy in 

 cases of weak sight. In Yemen Forskal saw two trees, one 

 of which resembled the lemon, and the other the apple-tree ; 

 but the inhabitants knew neither their names nor their quali- 

 ties. The sym el horal (or poison of fishes) is the fruit of 

 an unknown tree in Southern Arabia, and exported in con- 

 siderable quantities. Fishes swallow it eagerly, after which 

 they float in a state of seeming intoxication on the surface 

 of the water, and are easily taken. Among the new genera 

 described by the Danish traveller, and considered peculiar to 

 Arabia, are the katha^ cl kaya, keurn, and onkoba. The 

 katha^ which is imprrovable by cultivation, is commonly 



