270 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



hand, adding olive oil ten ounces, and water sufficient to bring the mass to a 

 proper consistence for an ointment. This is used in every sore from a fresh 

 wound to a venereal ulcer." 



2. A. vera, Willdenow. — Spines in pairs, subulate. Branches and petioles glabrous. 

 Leaves bipinnate ; leaflets 10 — 20 pairs. Legume moniliform. 



Linn., (M. nilotica,) Sp. PL 1506; De Candolle, Prod. ii. 461 ; Stephenson 

 and Churchill, ii. 77 ; Lindley, Fl. Med. 296. 



Common Names. — Egyptian Thorn ; Egyptian Gum Arabic Acacia. 



Foreign Names. — Acacie d'Egypte, Ft. ? Acacia Egiziana, It.; Egyptische 

 Acacia, Ger. 



Description. — A middle-sized tree, with a crooked stem, covered with a smooth gray 

 bark ; that of the branches is yellowish-green or purplish. The leaves are alternate, • 

 bipinnate, composed of two pairs of opposite pinnae, with numerous small, oblong, linear 

 leaflets, with a gland between the pinnae. The flowers are bright yellow, and collected 

 in globular heads about two together, upon axillary peduncles, and furnished with two 

 small bracts. The legume is four or five inches long, moniliform, nearly flat, smooth, of 

 a pale-brown colour, and contracted into numerous orbicular portions, in each of which 

 is lodged a flattish seed. 



This tree grows in several parts of Africa and in Arabia, where it is asso- 

 ciated with other species yielding similar products. 



It was originally referred by Linnseus to Mimosa, under the name of nilo- 

 tica; but with many others, was formed into the genus Acacia by Willde- 

 now, and called A. vera, as the Linncsan species included not only this spe- 

 cies, but some others ; it is very closely allied to the A. arabica, and, in 

 fact, Ehrenberg considers this latter as merely a variety of it. This furnishes 

 a fine quality of Gum Arabic, and also some Gum Senegal. 



3. A. arabica, Willdenow. — Spines in pairs. Branch- 

 Fig. 139. es and petioles pubescent. Leaves with 4 — 6 pairs of 

 pinnae. Leaflets 10 — 20 pairs, oblong, linear. Le- 

 gumes moniliform. 



Willd., Sp. PI. iv. 1084; Lamarck, Diet. i. 

 19 ; (A nilotica,) Delille, ///. fr. Egypt. 31 ; 

 Lindley, Fl. Med. 269. 



Description. — A small tree, with pubescent branches 

 and petioles. The leaves are bipinnate, in four to six 

 pairs, composed of from ten to twenty pairs of oblong, 

 linear leaflets, with a gland on the common petiole, be- 

 low the first, and generally one between the last pair of 

 pinnae. The flowers are yellow, in globose, peduncu- 

 lated, axillary, subternate heads. The legume is mo- 

 A. arabica. niliform, but the orbicular portions are said not to be 



as well defined as in the A. vera. 



This species is a native of Africa, Arabia, and India, and like the last, 

 furnishes Gum Arabic and part of the East Indian gum. 



3. A. gummifrra, Willdenow. — Spines straight. Branches smooth. Leaves with 6 

 pairs of obtuse, linear leaflets, with a gland between them. Flowers in axillary, oblong 

 spikes. Legume sub-moniliform, tomentose. 



Willd., Sp. PL iv. 1056 ; De Candolle, Prod. ii. 455 ; Sassa gummifera, 

 Gmel. 



This species grows in Egypt, and about Mogadore in Morocco. It is 



