134 BUESERACE^. 



Africa, near Cape Gardafui and of the southern coast of Arabia. Not- 

 withstanding the recent elaborate and valuable researches of Birdwood/ 

 the olibanum trees are still but imperfectly known, as will be evident 

 in the following enumeration : — 



1. Boswellia Gm^terii Birdw. — This includes the three following 

 forms, which may be varieties of a single species, or may belong to 

 two or more species, — a point impossible to settle until more perfect 

 materials shall have been obtained. 



a. Boswellia No. 5, Oliver, Flora of Tropical Africa, I. (1868) 

 324, Mohr mecldu or Mohr madow of the natives ; meddu, according to 

 Playfair and Hildebrandt, means black. The leaflets are crenate, 

 undulate, and pubescent on both sides. 



This tree is found in the Somali Country, growing a little inland in 

 the valleys and on the lower part of the hills, never on the range close 

 to the sea. It yields the olibanum called Luhdn Bedoiui or Lubdn 

 Sheheri (Playfair). 



Hildebrandt describes the Mohr meddu as a tree 12 to 15 feet high, 

 with a few branches, indigenous to the limestone range of Ahl or 

 Serrut, in the northern part of the Somali Country, where it occurs in 

 elevations of from 3000 to 5000 feet. To this tree belongs the figure 

 58 in Bentley and Trimen's Medicinal Plants (Part 20, 1877). 



b. Boswellia No. 6, Oliver, op. cit, Birdwood, Linn. Trans, xxvii., 

 tab. 29. — Sent by Playfair among the specimens of the preceding, and 

 with the same indications and native name. This form, the " Mohr 

 meddu " of the Somalis, has obscurely serrulate or almost entire leaflets, 

 velvety and paler below, glabrous above. The figure (which is not 

 given in the reprint) is very much the same as that of the following. 



c. Maghrayt d'sheehaz of the Maharas, Birdwood, I. c. tab. 30, 

 reprinted in Cooke's report, plate I ; Carter, Journ. of Bombay Bi^anch 

 of R. Asiat. iSoc. ii., tab. 23 ; B. sacra Fliickiger, Lehrhuch der Pharma- 

 kognosie des Pfianzenreiches, 1867. 31. — Ras Fartak, S.E. coast of 

 Arabia, growing in the detritus of limestone cliflfs and close to the 

 shore,^ also near the village of Merbat (Carter, 1844-1846). 



Birdwood's figure refers to a specimen propagated in the Victoria 

 Gardens, Bombay, from cuttings sent there from the Somali country by 

 Playfair. 



2. B. Bhau-Bajiana Birdw. I. c. tab. 31, or plate III. of the reprint. 

 — Somali Country (Playfair) ; cultivated in Victoria Gardens, Bombay, 

 where it flowered in 1868. The difierences between this species and B. 

 Carterii are not very obvious. 



^ On the Oenus Boswellia, mth descrip- and Aden, raised from cuttings sent by 



tions and figures of three new species. — Linn. Playfair. — 3. A specimen obtained by H. 



Trans, xxvii. (1870) 111. 148. This paper J. Carter in 1846, near Ras Fartak, on the 



is reprinted as an appendix to Cooke's south-east coast of Arabia, and still grow- 



" Report on the gums, resins, .... ing in Victoria Gardens, Bombay ; and 



of the Indian Museum," Lond. 1874. — figured by Carter in Journ. of Bombay 



The original plates are much superior and Branch of R. Asiatic Soc. ii. (1848) 380, 



more complete than the reprints. — The tab. 23. 



materials on which Dr. Birdwood's obser- ^ In the Xi/3ai/a)T-o</)opos x^P"^ of tbe anti- 



vations have been chiefly founded, and to quity, the hill region (where Mohr meddu 



which we also have had access, are, — 1. is growing) used to be contrasted with the 



Specimens collected during an expedition coast region, the Sahil. See Sprenger 



to the Somali Coast made by Col. Playfair (quoted further on, page 136, foot-note 3), 



in 1862. — 2. Growing Plants at Bombay page 90, 



