PHANEROGAMS — PROFESSOR BAYLEY BALFOUR. 101 



Soeotra. A tree found in many parts of the island. B.C.S. n. 210. 

 Schweinf. n. 243. 



Distrib. Endemic. 



Etym. AevBpov, tree and o-ikvos, cucumber. 



Schweinfurth had this growing at Cairo, but he tells me it did not thrive. 

 The examination of the anatomy of the stem would be of great morphological 

 interest, and I hope to have some specimens from Schweinfurth's plant, of 

 which an account will be given in the Appendix. 



The tree never attains any great height, but its soft, bare, and stout stems, 

 surmounted by a tuft of few slightly pendant branches, give it a weird and 

 fantastic look possessed by only one or two other plants on the island, e.g., the 

 Adenium midtijlorum, Klotzsch, and the Dorstenia gigas, Schweinf. Writing of 

 this tree, Wellsted (in Journ. Eoy. Geog. Soc. v. (1835), 198) says : — "The most 

 singular among the trees are two varieties which are called, in the language of 

 the island, Assett and Camhane ; both grow in very rocky places, and derive 

 nourishment from the soil lodged in cells and cavities. The whole diameter of 

 their trunks consists of a soft, whitish cellular substance, so easily cut through 

 that we could divide the largest of them with a common knife. Camels and 

 sheep feed on the leaves of the Camhane, but reject those of the Assett. A 

 milk-white juice exudes from the trunk and leaves of both, the nature of 

 which is so acrid, that if it penetrates to the eyes the pain is almost intolerable. 

 Several stems branch forth from the same family of roots, and the Assett 

 trees mostly divide, at a short distance from the ground, into several branches. 

 From the relative proportion between their height and diameter, and the few 

 leaves of foliage borne by them compared to their bulk, the most singular and 

 grotesque appearances are often produced ; some are not more than five feet in 

 height, while their base covers a greater extent in diameter. Both varieties, 

 during the north-east monsoon, bear a beautiful red flower. Since leaving 

 Soeotra, I have met the same trees in the vicinity of Maculla, but I can find no 

 mention made of them in any work within my reach." And again (page 141), 

 he says that near Kadhab he saw " inscribed on the soft and yielding bark of a 

 Camhane tree some Arabic inscriptions dated as far back as 1640." 



The Assett tree mentioned by "Wellsted is, I doubt not, the Adenium multi- 

 jlorum, Klotzsch (q.v.). I do not understand Wellsted's remark that the 

 flowers of the Camhane are red. All we obtained were yellow. One of the 

 mountain tribes of Soeotra, according to Wellsted and Captain Hunter, bears 

 the name of this tree — " Camahane." This tribe, which lives "in Haghier and 

 the hills above the Hadibu plain, claims to have its origin from the intermarriage 

 of the aborigines with the Mahri Arabs from the opposite coast." 



Amongst the few plants from the Arabian coast known to botanists, the 

 Camhane does not occur. It may, as Wellsted states, grow on that coast, but 

 in absence of confirmatory evidence, I here regard the plant as endemic. 



