SHRUBS. - 381 



of the most interesting productions of Wady Ghor is the 

 beyrouk honey (the Assal beyrouk of the Arabs), which 

 Burckhardt supposed to be manna. It was described to him 

 as a juice dropping from the leaves and twigs of the gharrab- 

 tree, about the height of an olive, with leaves like those of 

 the poplar, only somewhat broader. The honey is sweet 

 when fresh, but turns sour when kept for two days. It is 

 gathered in May and June, either from the leaves, on which 

 it collects like dew, or from the ground under the tree. The 

 colour is brownish, or rather of a grayish hue. 



Shrubs. — The deserts and mountains of Arabia produce 

 a variety of shrubs, with the uses and qualities of which we 

 are but imperfectly acquainted, and many of their names 

 might have remained utterly unknown had they not been acci- 

 dentally noticed by the passmg traveller. Several new gen- 

 era were discovered by Forskal, but he had little opportunity 

 for examining their properties. Of the mcEnia, kadaba, and 

 masa nothing particular has been recorded. The fruit of 

 the sadada is eaten ; and from the berry of the kebulha is 

 extracted a very strong kind of brandy, the acid taste of 

 which is counteracted by a mixture of sugar. Dolichos, a 

 species of that false phaseolus already mentioned, grows up 

 to a bushy shrub, so as to form hedges in a short time which 

 are almost impenetrable. The wood of the Cynanchumj 

 called march by the Arabs, is used for fuel ; it has all the 

 lightness and combustibility of tinder ; and Forskal observed 

 that the peasants near Loheia kindled it by rubbing one piece 

 against another. The nebtk {Rhamnus Lotus), the fruit of 

 which the Arabs sometimes eat in preference to dates, is very 

 common in the plain of Medina ; large quantities of it are ex- 

 posed in the market, where a person may obtain enough to 

 satisfy himself far a pennyworth of corn, which is readily 

 taken in exchange instead of money. The inhabitants of 

 Wady Feiran grind the dried fruit together with the stone, 

 and preserve the meal, which they call bryse, in leathern skins 

 in the same way as the Nubian Bedouins do. It forms an 

 excellent provision for journeying in the desert, as it only' 

 requires the addition of buttermilk to make a m.ost nourishing, 

 pleasant, and refreshing diet. Among the rocks of Mount 

 St. Catherine, Burckhardt observed, besides other shrubs, the 

 Sorour nearly in full bloom ; its fruit is about the size of a 

 small cherry, and has very much the flavour of the straw- 



