DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 135 
tenden's Zuban Meyti also) with Endlicher's Plósslea floribunda, but on an examination 
of the bark only." Kempthorne says, * During the south-west monsoon, the pastoral 
tribes in the neighbourhood of Ras Feluk collect large quantities of frankincense, which 
they barter to the Banians, of whom a few reside in the villages along the Abyssinian 
coast. Boats from Maculla come and fetch the gums, which are exchanged for a coarse 
kind of cotton cloth worn by the Soumalis." And again, ** I think that the localities from 
which the ancients obtained their principal supply of frankincense were situated on the 
almost inaccessible mountains of Adel, in Africa, facing the southern coast of Arabia ; 
for the trees, as we saw them, extended over such a vast tract of land that large quan- 
tities of the gum even now must be collected annually, as in the days of the Greeks and 
Romans. The plant grows at the height of between 2000 and 3000 feet above the sea.” 
He mentions that Cruttenden had before visited the country, but that Vaughan and he 
were the first Europeans who had ever visited the frankincense-forests of Adel. Vaughan 
states”, “ The Luban-tree is a native of the eastern coast of Africa, and flourishes on the 
highlands which intersect the whole of the Soumali country, where I had an opportu- 
nity of seeing it in 1843, not far from Cape Gardafui.”” And he gives the following as 
the different kinds of Luban found by him in the bazar of Aden :— 
Luban maitee, from Bunder Mait, collected chiefly by the Abardagahala Soumalis. 
Luban nankur or aungure, from Bunder Aungure and the country of Door Mahomed 
and the Abardagahala Soumalis. Zuban makur, from the ports of Ras Rurree, Khor 
Bunder, Alholu, and Bunder Maryah, and Bunder Khassoom, in the country of the 
Wursangali and Mijjerthén Soumalis, about Cape Gardafui. This drug is collected in 
March, April, and May, and chiefly finds its way to Bombay through the entrepôts of 
Maeulla and Shehr. Luban berbera or muslika, collected by the Aial Yunus and Aial 
Hamed Soumalis, and which is in agglomerated dark, vitreous tears, and largely used by 
the Arabs themselves; and Luban Marbat, or Saharee Luban, the frankincense of the 
libanotophorous region of Arabia, the highest-priced of all, and exported in enormous 
quantities to Bombay. 
RICHARD?, in 1845, described and figured his Boswellia papyrifera, identifying it with 
Delile's and Endlicher's plants, which are identical with Bruce's Angouah. The 
Abyssinian name he states, on the authority of Dillon and Schimper, to be Makker. 
“Tt grows on the mountains which encase the Tacazze.” : E 
In 1847, Carrer published? a figure and description of the frankincense-tree of Arabia, 
with remarks on the misplacement of the libanotophorous region in Ptolemy's geography , 
a paper which of course decided the vexed question whether Arabia produced frankin- 
cense or not, and for the first time accurately fixed the position of the Arabian thuri- 
ferous region, but which actually remained unnoticed, until I drew attention to it a few 
years ago, as will be presently told. He placed it under Colebrooke's eee and hence 
probably, in part, the reason why it was overlooked ; but it was a distinct technical species. 
* Pharm. Journ. vol. xii. 1853. i 
* Voyage en Abyssinie, pendant 1839-1843, par M. Théophile Lefebre, &e., vols. 4 & 5; Tentamen Flore Abyssi- 
hie, auctore Achille Richard, Atlas, tab. 33. : 
— * Journal of the Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society, vol. ii. | 
| WOU, XIYI. T 
