FRUIT-TREES 373 



planted on the hills among the coffee-shrubs. The natives 

 constantly chew the buds of this tree, which they call kuad, 

 and to which they ascribe the virtues of assisting digestion, 

 and of fortifying the constitution against infectious distempers. 

 The taste, according to Niebuhr, is insipid, and the only 

 effects he experienced from eating them was the interruption 

 of sleep. The kuera and el kaya are celebrated for their 

 perfume. The former bears some resemblance to the palm, 

 and produces flowers of a rich and delicious odour. They 

 are scarce, and draw a high price ; but a small quantity, if 

 preserved in a cool place, will continue for a long time to 

 diffuse its fragrance through a whole apartment. The latter 

 is common on the hills of Yemen ; the women steep its fruit 

 in water, which they use for washing and perfuming the hair. 

 The onkoha is a large tree, yielding an insipid fruit, which 

 children eat. Of the khadara, the antura, and the kulhamia 

 we know nothing, except that they are new species discov- 

 ered by Forskal, and that their wood is used in building. The 

 chestnut and sycamore gi'ow to a gigantic size in Hejaz. The 

 Arabs, however, have little timber suited for this purpose, 

 their trees being generally of a light porous texture. The 

 skeura, a new genus, which grows on the shore of the Red 

 Sea, is so soft that it is entirely useless. The el all, which 

 abounds in Nejed, resembles the oak, and is employed in the 

 construction of houses. The samar, sarch, salem, wahat, 

 and kathad serve only for firewood ; their leaves afford shel- 

 ter for the cattle, and form the chief nourishment of the 

 camels. 



Fruit-trees. — Most of the fruit-trees reared in the gardens 

 and hot-houses of Europe are indigenous to Arabia. The 

 apple, pear, peach, apricot, almond, quince, citron, pome- 

 granate, lemon, orange, olive, mulberry, and filberts are to be 

 met with in the wadis and irrigated plains, from the borders 

 of the Dead Sea to the Euphrates and the shores of Oman. *" 

 The Arabs likewise eat the fruit of several common shrubs, 

 such as Asclepins and the Rhamnus ; but they have a spe- 

 cies of pear and a cornel peculiar to themselves. From com- 



* Burckhardt doubts whether apples or pears grow in Arabia 

 (Travels, p. 367) ; but he seems to have forgotten that he men- 

 tions them elsewhere among the fi-uits m the garden of the con- 

 vent at Mount Sinai. Niebuhr speaks of them as common in 

 Yemen, tame iii. 130. 



Vol. II.— I i 



