SHRUBS. 423 



not been accidentally noticed by the passing traveller. 

 Several new genera were discovered by Forskal, but he 

 had little opportunity for examining their properties. Of 

 the mcerua, kadaba, and masa, nothing particular has 

 been recorded. The fruit of the sadada is eaten ; and 

 from the berry of the kebatha 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 Cynanchum, called 

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

 ness and combustibility of tinder ; and Forskal observed 

 that the peasants near Loheia kindled it by rubbing one 

 piece against another. The nebek (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 exposed in the market, where a person 

 may obtain enough to satisfy himself for 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 pro- 

 vision for journeying in the desert, as it only requires 

 the addition of buttermilk to make a most nourishing, 

 pleasant, and refreshing diet. Among the rocks of Mount 

 St Catherine, Burckhardt observed, besides other shrubs, 

 the Serour nearly in full bloom ; its fruit is about the 

 size of a small cherry, and has very much the flavour of 

 the strawberry. In Wady Mousa junipers grow in con- 

 siderable numbers. The tamarisk and talh-tree abound 

 in the same region. The tree called asheyr by the Arabs 

 is very common in Wady Ghor. It bears a fruit of a red- 

 dish yellow colour, about three inches in diameter, which 

 contains a white substance resembling the finest silk, and 

 enveloping the seeds. The Bedouins collect this stuff, 

 and twist it into matches for their muskets, preferring it 

 to the common match, as it ignites more readily. Burck- 

 hardt says that more than twenty camel-loads of this sub- 

 stance could be annually procured, and perhaps might 

 be found useful in the silk and cotton manufactures of 

 Europe. This tree, when incisions are made into the 

 branches, yields a white juice, which the natives collect, 



