354 GUM OLIBANUH. 



because it is principally taken to the Skehr and Makulla market from 

 the African coast." The Lub&n Matlee and LuMn Sheheri of Captain 

 Playfair would at first seem to correspond with Vaughan' s Luban Mattee 

 (No. 1), and Luban Shaharree or Morbat (No. 5), but there is difficulty in 

 reconciling Captain Playfair s remark on Luban Sheheri with those of Dr. 

 Vaughan, who states that the Lub&n Makur is " almost all taken to 

 Maculla and Shehr on the Arabian coast," and that the Luban Shaharree 

 is collected in the Southern and South-eastern districts of Arabia. 



" Each of the three specimens collected by Captain Playfair, ' writes 

 Dr. Birdwood,' so far as can be judged from the leaves, is distinct from 

 the plant described and figured by Carter, (vol. ii., ' Journal of Bombay 

 Branch of Asiatic Society,') as Boswellia thurifera (?) and afterwards, as 

 believed, identified by Stocks with B. papyri/era. No plant amongst those 

 sent by Captain Plaj^fair being like his plant, which, moreover, he found 

 in Arabia, Dr. Carter began to doubt Stock's reference, and expressed the 

 opinion that Mohr Madow would prove to be Hochstetters plant, of 

 which there can be little doubt, judging from the leaves. There are 

 then three known African Olibanum trees : 



Mohr Madow, Boswellia papyrifera, Hoch. 

 Mohr Add (undetermined). 

 Yegaar (undetermined). 



And one Arabian plant described in 1847 by Carter, but not yet named. 

 Captain Playfair says there are other species in Africa, but he has never 

 been able to get at them," 



If the Luban Sheheri of Captain Playfair is proved to be the Luban 

 Makur of Vaughan, by the fact of its being the kind sent to the Maculla 

 and Shehr markets, then it is the produce, in part, of the Mohr Madow 

 (Boswellia papyrifera, Hoch.), and the Arabian Luban or Luban Shaharree 

 of Vaughan, in part, the produce of Carter's tree, which may be called 

 provisionally Boswellia Carteri. Unfortunately, however, there is still 

 too much of doubt, arising from the discrepancy in native names alluded 

 to, to permit of our accepting this conclusion as matter of fact, but this 

 little additional information may indicate the course of future enquiry. 



The Arabian plant, which is certainly not Boswellia thurifera, Cole- 

 brook, is thus described by Carter, with the exception of the name — 



BOSWELLIA CARTERI. 



" In the Arabian tree, the leaflets are oval, of a deep green colour, glossy, 

 and sparsely pilose, in both it and B. serrata* they are crenate, serrated 

 and wavy ; they average six pairs, an inch in length, and, with the con- 

 fluence of the terminal leaflets, amounting to double, and frequently 

 treble the size of any of the others. The pericarp is pear-shaped and 

 about half the size of an olive ; indeed, the tree throughout appears to 

 average half the size of B. serrata. The new cuticle is of a bright hazel 



* This is tlie £. thurifera of Colebrool;e. 



