428 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 
[JUNE 27, 
Jearn that it was an article of distant commerce, that is 
obtained from Sheba, which was early known, was pro- 
bably of a resinous nature, and fragrant. 
The name lebonah is derived by Celsius, vol. i. p. 231, 
from a word signifying white ; but it is very similar to 
the Arabic—[/uban, signifying milk : and in a secondary 
sense, a gummy or resinous exudation from a tree, more 
especially frankincense. The Arabic uban has been 
stated by some authors to have been derived from the 
Greek Libanos, which was itself said to be applied to 
the above substance, because it was thought to be a pro- 
duce of Mount Libanus. But this, it was never sup- 
ed to be by any of the better informed of the ancients. 
Tere are, besides, several other words in the Arabic, 
which have a similar meaning, and which it is more 
probable were all originally derived from the same root 
as the Hebrew lebonah, and the Arabie luban, which 
are applied in both languages to the same substance. 
This the Greeks called /ibanos, and the Romans Thus ; 
it is now commonly called olibanum. Several kinds of 
resin, have, however, at different times been confounded 
together under the names incense and frankincense, 
as well as under the latin name Thus. 
‘Dioscorides describes two kinds of olibanum : first, 
that which is produced in that part of Arabia called 
| Thurifera, and that which is produced in India, besides 
ji several ial varieties depending on purity, form, 
jl and size. Theophrastus notices it in lib. ix. e. 4, and 
Hippocrates under the name of A(Baverbv. Theophras- 
i tus describes the tree yielding it as large and like a 
Pear tree. According to Diodorus Siculus, it is like 
the Egyptian Acacia, with Willow-like leaves. But 
from the contradictory descriptions it is evident that 
| the ancients were totally unacquainted with the tree 
| yielding olibanum. Garcias ab Horto said the tree was 
| like à Lontiscus, Thevet stated it to be a Pine, and Lin- 
| neus conjectured that olibanum was the produce ofa 
Juniper, at one time of Juniperus thurifera, and at 
| another of J. lycia, the former growing in Spain, and 
i the latter in Africa and the south of France; but 
neither have been proved to yield any frankincense. 
It is necessary, in the first instance, to determine the 
| country or countries whence this incense was and is ob- 
| tained before we attempt to ascertain the plant which 
ields it, because travellers are so apt to mistake one 
iM thing for another, that little reliance can be placed on 
| many of their statements. The prophets Isaiah and 
|| Jeremiah both point to Sheba as the country yielding 
|. frankincense. This has generally been supposed 
ll to refer to Saba, on the coast of Arabia. The 
| ancients almost universally refer to this, as may be 
| seen in the numerous quotations by Celsius. Thus Theo- 
| phrastus mentions that part of Arabia which is about 
| Saba, Adramita, and Citibeona ; so also Strabo states, 
| that in the happy region of the Sabseans, both myrrh 
| and frankincense (A:Bavos) are produced. Pliny re- 
peats the same, and the poets refer to it “solis est thurea 
virga Sabais.” By some it was supposed to be produced 
| on Mount Lebanon; but Celsius quotes R. David 
| Kimchi, on Jerem. vi. 20, “ rdi qd thus e terris 
longe dissitis quia non inveniebatur in terra Israelis." 
Dioscorides, however, states that Aigavos or olibanum 
is produced both in Arabia and in India. Two kinds 
are known in the present day, the African and the 
Indian. The author of the Periplus mentions Aigavos 
expressly as procured with myrrh, at Malao, Masylon, 
and Aromata, which probably correspond with the mo- 
dern Tajoura, Zeila, and Berbera, on’ the east coast of 
Africa. Arab writers, as Serapian and Avicenna, who 
| evidently refer to the description of Dioscorides, state 
that loban is also called koondur. A Persian author 
affirms that it is produced on the coast of Yemen and 
| of Oman. 
| which is on the sea coast near Dafar. Niebuhr states 
| that the plant is cultivated at Keshin and Schahr, 
| which are on the same south coast of Arabia, but 
| that it was originally introduced from Abyssinia. 
| Forskal says positively that it is produced by a species 
| of Amyris, one of which, indeed, yields myrrh. Lieu- 
| tenant Wellsted, in his travels on the south coast of 
| Arabia, and in Oman, does not say that frankincense is 
| produced on that coast, but that he was never able to see 
f the tree which produced it. There is nothing impro- 
i bable in olibanum being produced along the coast of 
Arabia, but it has never yet been proved that it is so. 
Many of the exports of the Arabian coast, both in 
ancient and modern times, are first imported from 
Africa. This is the case with the greater part, if not 
the whole of the myrrh of commerce, and probably also 
with frankincense. Mr. Johnston, the author of Travels 
in Southern Abyssinia, has informed the author of this 
article that frankincense, so called, is exported in large 
l quantities from Berbera, on the Soumalee coast of Africa, 
i and that it is brought from the interior. So Dr. Malcolm- 
| son writes, from Aden, that it is largely imported into that 
i port, and also into other ports of the Arabian coast, 
whence it is re-exported to Bombay. Another kind of 
olibanum is no doubt produced in the interior of India, 
and exported from Calcutta. It will be shown in 
another article that these are produced by two species of 
tie same genus of plants.—R. 
fplnts—R. — is 
j ON THE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS WHICH CON- 
i STITUTE THE NUTRITIVE PORTIONS OF 
| THE POTATO. 
| By the Rev. Prof. HENSLOW. 
j 
| 
EE E! p y (Continued from p. 405.) 
tM 3354 ym obtained Fe seats I pass to such as 
< are procured from the stems of certain plants. Sago is a 
- starch of this class, Itis largely obtained from certain 
i Palm-trees, and more especially from one which is 
| Jd EC 
2 mE 
3 
Avicenna states that it comes to Merbat, | 
called the Sago-Palm (Sagus Rumphii) of which 
Fig. 3 affords you a representation. The character 
of such trees is very different from that of any which we 
ever seein our own climate. They grow only within the 
tropics, or in warm countries contiguous to them. The 
interior of their trunk is pulpy and pith-like, and 
Fig. 3. 
often contains an abundance of starch. In order to 
procure this, the trunk is split into logs a few feet in 
length, and the soft interior is then extracted and 
pounded, and thrown into water. The water is then 
drained off from the pulpy mass, and the starch comes 
away with it; and upon being allowed to settle, is 
afterwards prepared and purified by successive wash- 
ings. The Sago-meal, as it is called, and of which I 
show you a specimen, is the form in which this starch 
is procured, although it is not commonly imported to 
England in this state. Theusual form in which this starch 
is tobe met with,is the common article called Pearl Sago, 
composed of little spherical grains ; a character given 
it by passing the Sago-meal through a cullender, and 
then drying it on hot plates, Potato starch is some- 
times prepared in this form, and is then sold by the 
honest dealer as Potato-Sago, and by the fraudulent 
tradesman as true Sago. 
Fig. 4, 
There is another tribe of plants to which the genus 
Cyeas belongs, containing one or two species from 
which it is stated that a coarse description of Sago is 
sometimes procured. They have short thick stems, 
crowned with a cirele of large leaves, but are totally 
unlike Palms in their botanical characters. The public 
enjoy the opportunity of seeing these tropical plants 
in perfection at the great national establishment at Kew, 
which is now as freely accessible as the British Museum. 
The trunks of the different plants which furnish the Sa- 
goes of commerce rise into the air ; but there isa class 
of stems which are either wholly or partially subter-. 
ranean, and which abound in starch. Some of this. 
class of stems are so variously modified in form and 
character as to require specific names for designating 
them. The tubers of the Potato, and of the Jerusalem 
Artichoke, are only swollen portions of under-ground 
stems which are thus modified to serve the important 
purpose of becoming magazines of nutriment for the 
future development of their buds (or eyes as they are 
usually called) into those stalks and branches which 
rise above ground, and bear leaves and flowers, We 
must not confound the true tuber (with its buds) with 
that are merely swollen 
organ. These we find in the Dahlia, Peony, and in 
certain of the Orchis tribe. Such tuberous roots. 
also serve as magazines of nutriment, but they bear 
no buds upon their surface, unless such are formed an 
forced upon them by peculiar treatment. The nourish- 
ment which is stored in tubers, tuberous roots, and the 
other forms assumed by subterraneous stems and roots, 
is very frequently starch ; though in some cases it is 
gum or sugar, according to the peculiar plant, or even 
according to the time of year in which we search for 
it. Several species of the Indian Shot tribe, growing 
in tropical countries, are capable of furnishing a great 
abundance of starch, which is stored up in their under- 
ground stems. The starch imported under the name 
of Arrow-root comes from plants of this tribe; 
especially from one which itself bears this name 
(Maranta arundinacea, fig. 4), because of its native 
name Ara. Another of the same tribe furnishes the 
* Tous les Mois” of commerce, a starch which is con- 
sidered to be an equally excellent article as Arrow- 
oot, and which is sold much cheaper. Tam not aware 
of any facts that have been sufficiently authenticated by 
competent authority, to prove that either of these 
exotic starches are more wholesome than common Po- 
tato starch, when this is properly prepared and tho- 
roughly purified of all adventitious matters. I consider 
the Potato-starch much more palatable than Arrow- 
root, in the usual form in which the latter is prepared 
for invalids. Starches must be boiled to make thenr 
digestible, and then they all assume the form of a 
homogeneous jelly-like paste. “But,” says Raspail, 
‘it is evident that pure starches being chemically iden- 
tical in all plants, they must possess similar medical 
properties. It is mere quackery to direct a patient to 
use any one of them rather than another, and to give a. 
preference to the more costly exotic article over the 
cheaper indig one; qi , we ought always 
to prescribe Potato-starch in preference to Sago or 
Arrow-root; both of which are so readily imitated.’” 
(To be continued.) 
Home Correspondence. 
The Fruit and its Judges at Chiswick.—l beg to 
offer a few observations in reply to your correspondent 
of last week, who signed himself “A Fruit-grower but 
not an Exhibitor. I fully agree with him that the 
exhibition of collections of fruit should be encouraged, 
and I think it must be admitted by every impartial 
person competent to form a correct opinion on the sub- 
ject that they have frequently been rewarded at Chis- 
wick with much higher prizes than their real merit 
warranted, and your correspondent himself asserts that 
the judges formerly acted too liberally towards them. 
When collections, of fruit were first shown it was 
thought advisable by the judges to give them unusual 
encouragement, and I do not hesitate to confess, that 
with a view to stimulate the exhibitors, I have on many 
occasions acquiesced in awards which I considered. 
higher than the collections in strictness merited. The 
evil consequences of that course soon, however, began 
to develop themselves; unripe and second-rate fruit 
was constantly sent by parties who not having a suffi- 
cient variety of good articles to form a collection, made 
it up with those of inferior quality, and to so great an 
extent was this abuse at length carried, that the Horti- 
cultural Society thought it right to enact a new rule, - 
viz. that “all fruit must be fully ripe and well coloured; 
if, the contrary, it will be disqualified.” — Notwithst d. 
ing this judieious regulation the unripe fruit continued. 
to make its appearance, and was of course passed 
over by the judges, who are bound to consider a collec- 
tion as a whole, and have not the power to separate the 
good portion of it from the bad, and award a prize for 
the good part alone. Much angry feeling Las occa- 
sionally been shown by the unsuccessful exhibitors who 
disregarded the Society’s rule, and some good advice to 
them has from time to time appeared in your Paper + 
but it has produced little effect, for it is no longer ago 
than your report of the last May meeting when spea i~ 
ing of their obstinacy in continuing to send fruit in an 
unripe state, you observe, * We trust that the judge? 
will not flinch from their duty by passing by uuripe 
fruit, and that the growers will learn in time to dis- 
tinguish between vinegar and sugar." I now come to 
your correspondent’s complaint that Mr. Ingram's col- 
lection was not adequately rewarded, and in considering 
this point it will be necessary to bear in mind that m 
addition to requiring all fruit to be fully ripe and uh 
coloured, it is expressly enjoined by the Society thai 
the judges shall “not make any award in cases where 
the objects exhibited do not appear worthy of the 
medal, otherwise a bad single exhibition might obain S 
prize merely because there is no better exhibition © 
the same class to oppose it" It is very easy to apply 
the terms “beautiful,” “admirably grown,” “fit for fe 
| queen," &e, &e., to any fruit, no matter how inferior 
