8 
“ brown gum.” Other travellers york collected specimens at Aden 
now in the Kew Herbarium, among whom may be mentioned Anderson, 
1859, and peg! Balfour, 1 
In ‘Irby a d Mangles’ Travels > abe and the Dead Sea, p. 469, 
there i is the ‘following referen tree :—“ A very singular plant 
ows near the hot sources {Calierhoe ha of the bulk and 
“ stature of a tree; its foliage does not se o differ from that of the 
“ commen broom. It bears a pod We Pete from it about a foot 
or fourteen inches in length fluted with convex ribs from the end to 
Specimens in the Kew Museum marked “ Seed of a tree near the hot 
springs of Callirrhoe,” evidently refer to the above, and are undoubtedly 
oringa aptera. 
The Kew Herbarium possesses specimens collected by Lord in the 
ore Peninsula in 1868, by Lowne at Engedi in 1864, by Ehrenberg 
n Arabia in 1870, by Rohr in Abyssinia in 1841, and by Schweinthrth, 
Thebais i in 1885. 
The following za appears on a specimen from Gay’s Herbarium :— 
“ Delile ma dit, e 17 Octobre 1835, qu’il falloit rapporter au Moringa 
" “ aptera, le Moria nux Ben de sa FI. Ægypt. Illustr., p. 81. Les 
< graines p se vendent dans les boutiques du Cai ire et d’ Alexandrie, 
“ sous |] m de habbat et ghalz, et dont on extrait l'huile de Ben, 
ss ipani: au Moringa aptera, Gaertn.” 
According to Decaisne [Ann. des Sc. Nat. 2° ser., Vol. IV., pp. 204, 
205], Moringa aptera has been introduced at Cairo, where it is now 
cultivated from seeds brought from Sennaar. Thence they are exported 
into S 
de leurs preian Vhuile de Ben du commerce, c’est du ins TOPSA 
des anciens urs. Van Rheede et Rumphius, qui s’entendent longue- 
nt sur une foule d’usages auquels on e s feuilles ou les 
grames du Moringa pterygosperma ne disent cependant pas qwon en 
fasse de Phuile, tandis que Belon fait plusieurs fois mention de ce 
produit et de Parbre lui- -même, sous le nom de Balanus myrepsica. 
Il le cite dans son voyage au Mont Sinai, où il ne parait plus exister 
aujourd’hui 
In the ho ope o of obtaining seeds, application was made to Dr. Georg 
eb kee amen the celebrated African traveller; the following reply was 
received 
Dr. SCHWEINFURTH to DIRECTOR, ROYAL GARDENS, Kew. 
DEAR piin Cairo, 11th October re tie 
I rounp your kind letter of the 19th Septembe er on my retur 
from the Taisto. where | spent the last summer, and I area to 
get the information you wanted about the Ben-oil. 
I visited many of the old Arabian oil presses here, but nobody knew 
anything of Moringa or of its products, although I showed specimens 
of the fruits. It appears to me probable that Moringa oil is not now 
manufactured i in Cairo, but that it is imported from elsewhere, if at all 
use. 
Morii aptera, Gaertn (Moringa arabica, aon m., Hyperanthera 
peregrina, Forsk, H. semidecandra, Va ahl.), wild in the East- 
Arabian desert of Upper Egypt, and I found it often in the mountains 

AER AEE E ee 
* No mention is made of Moringa cil in Figari’s “ Studj scientifici sul E tto,” i 
which w ore all drugs of Cairo are enumerate E ' s 
