FLORA ARABICA 
BY 
ETHELBEET BLATTER, s.j-., i.l.s. 
INTRODUCTION. 
¥ E have tried to embody in the present work all the information available 
regarding the systematic Botany of Arabia. Through the kindness 
of the authorities at Kew and the British Museum we were allowed to make 
unrestricted use of the rich collections stored up in those establishments. As 
the two Herbaria possess duplicates the chief foreign collections (Auchor- 
Eloy, Bov6, Defiers, Ehrenberg loissier, Post, Schimper, Schweinfurth, etc.) 
we may safely say that '*^e had all the plant-material ever collected in Arabia 
at our disposal. 
It had been our intention to give a history of the botanical exploration of 
x\rabia and, in addition, a general sketch of its vegetation ; but the notes we 
took during the first year of the war are at present in England. We trust, 
Jiowever, that we shall be able to deal with those questions at the end of this 
catalogue. 
The accompanying map will make it sufficiently clear what area has been 
dealt with in our Flora. The same map shows the boundaries of the four 
botanical regions into which we have divided the whole of Arabia :•*— 
I. The Extra-tropical West. 
II. The Tropical West. 
III. The Tropical East. 
IV. The Extra-tropical East or the Persian Gulf region. 
We consider these regions to be natural ones, though the boundaries will, 
be somewhat modified as soon as tlie botanical survey and more extensive 
meteorological observations have furnished U3 with more accurate data for a 
plant geographical distribution of the species. 
An explanation is required regarding the Arabic names of plants, H. G. 
Carter, who published “ Some Plants of the Zor Hills, Koweit, Arabia ** 
collected by Cox, says in the Introducticn ; The value of Sir Percy Cox^a 
