INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXXvii 



is it alone in its swollen gouty stem. In Adenium multiflorum and Dorstenia 

 gigas it finds fitting companions in its weirdness. Cocculus Balfourii is another 

 plant which in habit vies with the preceding in peculiarity. In place of the 

 twining lianes of most species of the genus, we find here an erect hard-wooded 

 undershrub, with branches ending in spines, and bearing hard spinose claclodes. 

 In Punica protopunica we have a plant which in interest surpasses most of 

 the others in the flora, — a pomegranate with a single row of carpels, evidently re- 

 presentative of the stock from which the pomegranate of cultivation is sprung. 



I only mention a few of these more conspicuously noteworthy plants, as they 

 are again referred to in this introductory chapter, and fuller details regarding 

 them are given in the descriptive part of the flora. But I must now say a word 

 regarding plants interesting for their products, of which we have several 

 in Socotra. And first mention may be here given to the dragon's-blood tree, 

 Dracama Cinnabari. The greater part of the dragon's-blood of commerce at the 

 present time is the product of Calamus Draco of Sumatra. But the Socotran 

 gum-resin is the old Kiwafiapi mentioned by Dioscorides. It is known on the 

 island as edah ; amongst the Arabs it is Mtir. The plant is endemic, and nearly 

 allied to the D. Draco of Teneriffe. From the other gum-resin-producing 

 species, D. Ombet of Abyssinia and D. schizantha of Somali-land, of which we 

 have as yet but imperfect knowledge, it is apparently quite distinct. The 

 gum-resin exudes in tears from the stem of the tree, and is collected after the 

 rains, the gatherer chipping off the tears into goat-skins. There are three 

 forms in which the gum-resin is exported. Of these edah amsello — the tears as 

 they exude from the tree — is the purest and most valuable form; 2\ lbs. 

 fetch one dollar. The second best kind is called edah dukkah. It consists of 

 the small chips and fragments of the tears which have been broken off in 

 separating the gum-tears from the tree, or by attrition ; it sells at one dollar 

 for 4 lbs. The cheapest is the edah mukdehah, which brings a dollar for 5 lbs., 

 and is very impure. It is in the form of small flat-sided masses, and consists 

 of fragments of gum-resin and refuse of the gatherings melted together into a 

 flat cake, and then broken up into smaller portions. 



Of other gum-resin-producing trees on the island, the frankincense and 

 myrrh-trees must be noticed. I have already referred to the discussion that 

 has taken place regarding the incense-country of the ancients. The Hadra- 

 maut country is the chief incense-region, and to its kings Socotra is said to 

 have been subject. But Socotra, as I have already mentioned, is identified 

 on ethnological grounds by Mariette as the 'To Nuter' of the Theban 

 monuments; and we find the genus Boswellia, which yields frankincense, 

 represented in Socotra by no less than three species, all of which are endemic, 

 and possibly there is a fourth ; as there are only three other known species 

 of the genus, all of which save one are Somali-land plants, the proportion 



