188 DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 
there, and labelled, by Stocks, Boswellia papyrifera; and in my catalogue of the Govern- 
ment Central Museum, published in 1862, I adopted Boswellia papyrifera, Richard, 
which Royle had called Boswellia floribunda, as the source of olibanum ; for I had 
ascertained that Boswellia thurifera, Colebrooke, produced none of the olibanum of 
commerce, but only an oleo-resinous exudation. But I had not seen Endlicher's and 
Richard's descriptions and figures, nor probably had Stocks; and I therefore asked 
Colonel (then Captain) Playfair, at Aden, whether he could procure me any cuttings of 
the African frankincense-tree. Colonel Playfair sent me a large collection of several 
varieties of dried leaves and of cuttings, accurately labelled with their native names, 
with samples of the kinds of frankincense which they respectively yielded. At my 
request, he subsequently sent duplicates of his dried specimens to Kew. On the cut- 
tings which were sent to me striking and leafing, I found that I had three kinds :— 
Yegaar, yielding Luban maitee, an undoubtedly new species, and Mohr Add and Mohr 
Madow, yielding Luban sheheri, the bulk of the olibanum exported from the Soumali 
country. Judging by the young leaves solely, I should have been inclined to consider 
Colebrooke's, Endlicher's, Richard's, and Carter's plants, and Roxburgh's Boswellia 
glabra all only more or less variations of one species, and Yegaar the only second species. 
Indeed, if I followed my own erring inclination, I should hold so now. | 
Amongst Playfair's dried specimens of Mohr Add and Mohr Madow, were the leaves 
of a variety of each, which he said yielded an inferior olibanum, called Luban bedowi. 
Carter's plant never flowered with me, nor until last year would Playfair's. But he 
had planted duplicates of the euttings he sent to me, in the romantie little gardens laid 
out by him near the celebrated tanks of Aden. They had not flowered before he left 
Aden for Zanzibar; but when passing Aden, in June 1867, he found that one of the plants 
had flowered, and he sent its flowers to Kew. When I saw these in J uly 1867, it was 
not known to which kind they belonged, as Playfair had not picked any leaves with 
them. I therefore, on my way back to Bombay, in November 1807, visited the gardens, 
and found from the gardener that it was Mohr Madow that had flowered the previous 
June. Seeing the plants were leafing too much, I left directions to water them less 
abundantly than they had been, and to send me any flowers that they produced. On 
reaching Bombay, I also stopped watering the plants in Victoria Gardens, the Agri-Hor- 
ticultural Soeiety's new Gardens in Bombay; and early in the monsoon of last year 
Mohr Add flowered. In September last, I was again at Aden, and theu found Yegaar 
in full bloom. It is from these materials that 1 have, with Dr. Thomson and Professor 
Oliver's kind assistance, prepared the descriptions, and Mr. Fitch has drawn the figures, 
of the three species which I have named :— 
Boswellia Carterii (Mohr Madow). 
Boswellia Bhau-Dajiana (Mohr Add). 
Boswellia Frereana (Yegaar). 
In rearranging the genus I have also included Roxburgh's B. glabra under Cole- 
brooke's B. thurifera. 
Mohr Madow Y have named as if Carter's plant; that is, as the specimens of his plant . 
have disappeared from the India House, I have described it from my specimens of Mohr — 
