426 NATURAL HISTORY OP ARABIA. 



a conserve of the berries. This is the shrub which Burck- 

 hardt supposes might have been used by Moses to sweeten 

 the bitter waters of Marah (Exod. xv. 25) ; but as he 

 made no inquiries on the spot his supposition rests on 

 mere conjecture. 



Another shrub, of high celebrity in the East as an article 

 for the toilette, is the henna-tree (Lawsonia inermis, 

 Linn."), whose leaves and odoriferous flowers, when pul- 

 verized and wrought into a paste, are universally used by 

 the ladies for staining the face, hands, feet, and nails, of 

 a reddish or yellowish colour ; lighter or deeper according 

 to the manner in which this fashionable pomatum is ap- 

 plied. The tincture requires to be frequently renewed. 

 This shrub, which in size and character resembles privet, 

 is very abundant in Wady Fatima, and sold to the haj- 

 jis at Mecca in small red leathern bags. A species of 

 Glycyrrhiza, or liquorice-shrub, is common in Yemen, as 

 is also a sort of caper- tree (Capparis spinosa, Linn.), 

 which is reckoned the only antidote against the effects of 

 a shrub (called Adenia by Forskal), whose buds, when 

 dried and given in drink as a powder, are strongly poi- 

 sonous. The rose-laurel (Nerium), the cotton-plant, the 

 acacia, and various others, spring in the sandy plains, 

 and form scattered tufts of verdure in the cliffs of the 

 barren rocks. The acacia being one of the largest and 

 most common shrubs in the desert, Shaw conjectures that 

 it must have been the shittim-wood of which the planks 

 and several utensils of the tabernacle were made (Exod. 

 xxv.) As it abounds with flowers of a globular figure, 

 and of delicious fragrance, it is perhaps the same as the 

 shittah-tree, which (Isaiah, xli. 19 ) is joined with the 

 myrtle and other sweet-smelling plants. Of the cotton- 

 tree Niebuhr mentions two species, one of which grows 

 to some size, and the other bears red flowers. The profits 

 from the culture of this article are inconsiderable, as most 

 of the Arabs wear the cotton cloths of India and Egypt. 



The incense-tree, so famous in all antiquity, is not once 

 mentioned by Forskal : the travellers could learn nothing 

 of it, except that it was to be found in a part of Hadra- 

 maut, where it is called oliban. The soil of the hills where 

 it grows is said to be of a clayey texture, impregnated with 

 nitre. Ibn Batuta, who visited Dafar and Hasec (A. D. 

 1328), says, " We have here the incense-tree, which is 

 about the height of a man, with branches like those of the 



