BOTANY/. 411 



a bunch of flowers. The Nerium obesum, a sort of laurel- 

 rose, is remarkable for a singular bulb close to the earth 

 about the size of a man's head, which forms all its trunk, 

 and out of which the branches spring. The Volatella 

 aphylla (Cassyta filiformis, Linn.) appears like a long 

 slender thread, without root or leaves, which entwines 

 itself about trees. It bears, however, a sort of flower, and 

 berries which are eaten by children. The caydbeja (call- 

 ed Forskalea by Linnaeus, in honour of its discoverer) 

 grows in the driest parts of the country. It has small 

 feelers, with which it fixes itself so tenaciously upon soft 

 or smooth substances, that it must be torn in pieces be- 

 fore it can be removed. 



Arundinaceous plants are necessarily limited to certain 

 districts. In most parts of Yemen, a sort of panick-grass 

 or bulrush (Panicum and Scirpus, Linn.) is used in roof- 

 ing houses; and as rains are not frequent, these slender 

 coverings are found to be sufficient. There is a particular 

 sort of rush on the borders of the Red Sea, of which the 

 natives work carpets so fine that they are exported to other 

 countries, even as far as Constantinople, and form a con- 

 siderable branch of trade. There is also a species of field- 

 reed, which rises to the gigantic height of twenty-four 

 feet, and is found in great abundance in the district of 

 Ghobebe, near Suez. It is an article of commerce, being 

 exported to Yemen, where it is used in the ceiling of 

 houses. In the same neighbourhood Niebuhr was sur- 

 prised to see a Conferva growing at the bottom of the 

 Hammam Faraoun, the temperature of which was at 142^ 

 of Fahrenheit's scale. That the sugar-cane was from a 

 very early period cultivated in Yemen has been already 

 noticed.* When the Arabs conquered Spain and the Me- 

 diterranean islands they introduced it among their other 

 improvements. The experiment succeeded ; and in Si- 

 cily the duty imposed on its exportation produced a very 

 large revenue to the government. The ancient records 

 of Calabria inform us that seven villages were entirely 

 employed in this commerce. With the Portuguese dis- 

 coveries the Indian cane travelled to America, where its 

 extensive plantations so lowered the price of sugar that 

 it became impossible to support a competition ; in conse- 

 quence of which its cultivation was gradually abandoned. 



* Pliny mentions it " Saccharon et Arabia fert, sed laudatius 

 India." Lib. xii. cap. 1J 



