THE MUSTARD TREE. 
187 
made of its berries, they believed to be the true Mustard tree. On Mr. David Don 
j examining the specimens furnished by these gentlemen, he found them to be taken 
1 from a very different plant to any species of Sinapis or Phytolacca, and to belong to 
) an entirely new genus, which has been named Salvadora, and the species persica. 
! The peculiarity of its structure does not allow of its being associated with any 
j previously-known order of plants ; it therefore stands as the type of a new Order, 
I named Salvadoracece. 
This plant forms a moderate-sized tree or shrub. Stem swelled at the joints. 
Branches numerous and spreading. Bark acrid, especially that of the root. The 
leaves are opposite, entire, coriaceous, ovate, with the veining scarcely perceptible. 
Flowers small, and produced in loose leafy panicles, the lower portions being axillary, 
and the upper part terminating the branchlets. Calyx of four sepals, small. Corolla 
monopetalous, four-parted. Fruit a berry. 
At a meeting of the Asiatic Society in 1844, an interesting paper on this subject 
was read by Dr. Royle, which confirms the opinion expressed by the previously- 
mentioned gentleman, that the Salvadora Persica is the true Mustard tree of the 
ancients. 
“ Dr. Royle stated that he had received his information respecting this plant from 
a gentleman of the name of Ameuny, a native of Syria, who told him that he knew 
the Mustard tree well, that the native name was Khardal, and that the seeds were 
employed there for exactty the same purposes as mustard is with us. Dr. Royle 
referred to a variety of sources, to obtain some explanation of Khardal, as applicable 
to a tree of Palestine ; but was unable to proceed beyond the Asiatic names of three 
lands, enumerated in his manuscript Materia Medica of the East. 1, Khardal, or 
Common Mustard ; 2, Khardal harree, or Wild Mustard ; 3, Khardal Roomee, 
or Turkish Mustard. This last was the plant to which he referred. On the Doctor 
examining the Index of his “ Illustrations of Himalayan Botany,” he found the 
word Kharjal, as one of the names of a tree in North-west India, apparently well 
suited to be the Mustard tree of Scripture, though he had no proof that it extended 
into Palestine. This is the Salvadora Persica, first obtained from the Persian 
Gulf ; which is there a tree of moderate size, with drooping branches, and leaves 
somewhat resembling those of the Olive, with acrid bark and edible berries.” 
“ Dr. Roxburgh describes the same tree as common in the peninsula of India, 
growing well in every soil, producing flowers and ripe fruit all the year round, with 
the inflorescence in panicles ; the berries red and juicy, much smaller than a grain 
of black pepper, having a strong aromatic smell, and taste much like garden cresses. 
Retz had previously obtained the same plant from Tranquebar, and had called it 
Emhelia grossularia." 
“Forskal found it in Arabia, and called it Cissus arhorea, stating that it was 
much esteemed by the Arabs, and even celebrated by their poets. Having traced this 
tree from India up the Persian and Arabian Gulfs, the Doctor was still unable to 
find any authority for its being found in Palestine. On inquiry, he was informed by 
