268 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



lawsonia inermis * . Its Arabic name is henne, or 

 hanna ; and with the article elhenne, or elhanna ; in 

 Turkey trjey call it karma, or alkanna. Though its 

 figure has been already published in several books 

 on natural history -f, it has not been faithfully re- 

 presented in any one, or with such exactness of de- 

 tail, as in the drawing which I had taken of it at 

 Fvossetta. See plate IV. in which the different 

 parts of the shrub are accurately copied after nature. 



Miller cultivated the henna in England, where 

 it was necessary to keep it constantly in the hot- 

 house. It does not yet make part of the rich and 

 magnificent collection of living plants in the na- 

 tional garden of France. But the scientific exer- 

 tions of the learned gentlemen who are partaking 

 of the glory of the astonishing expedition to Egypt, 

 will not delay, undoubtedly, to rank, among the 

 number of the triumphs which a grateful country 

 shall owe them, that of a charming and useful plant. 

 More happily situated than England, the French 

 Republic will be able, perhaps, to embellish one 



* Lcfwsonici'inermis, folih subsessilibus ovatis, utrinque acutis, 

 Liu. Octandr. monogyn. — Lawsonia spinosa, albenna. Hasselq. 

 Voyage to rhe Levant. N. B. That the epithet of sfiinosa is by 

 no means applicable to \\\thenna, for it has no thorns. — Laiusonia 

 inermis. Forsk. Flora Egyptiaco-Arabica. 



f Walt. Hort. 3, t. 5. — Rhead. Malab. 4, t. 57.— Rauwolf, 

 Jtin. t,6o. — Bellon. edit. Clus. p. 135, &c. &c. 



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