2 
HISTORY OF THE BOTANICAL 
the east of Aden, and thence ... an explorer with local experience might 
find his way to Marib and along the fringe of the desert to Nejran.” 1 
Every botanist knows how scanty is our knowledge of eht vegetation 
of Arabia in spite of the names of L6on Delaborde, Tayler, Ruppel, 
Forskal, Bov6, Auchers, Boissier, Botta, Wellsted, Burlton, Schimper, 
BormiiJler, Schweinfurth, Fischer, Anderson, Kotschy, Ascherson, Buhse, 
Defiers, Hirsch, Bent, Lunt, and others. 2 This is not surprising, 
however, if we consider on the one hand, the often insurmountable diffi- 
culties that lie in the way of every traveller in Arabia, and on the other 
th^ fact that even with regard to Aden it took more than a century 
before its flora was somewhat satisfactorily explored. In the following 
pages we wish to show the progress of our knowledge since the time 
when the first plant was collected at Aden. 
Henry Salt, 1809. — When Salt 3 visited Aden in 1809, this place 
was in possession of Ahmed, the chief of the Azaibees. In 1802, Sir 
Home Popham had concluded a treaty of friendship and commerce with 
this chief. W henever a favourable opportunity occurred, Salt seems to 
have collected plants, but, judging from his specimens in the British 
Museum, without appending any notes or records of stations to his 
plants. % His specimens were named and enumerated by R. Brown in 
Appendix IV of Salt’s “ Voyage to Abyssinia,” under the title : “ List of 
New and Rare Plants collected in Abyssinia during the years 1805 and 
1810, arranged according to the Linnean System.” 
There is only one specimen in his herbarium, a fragment of Sterculia 
arabica, of which we may say with some certainty that it must have 
been gathered at Aden. It is therefore, not on account of his collections 
that we mention Salt in this place, but owing to his botanical and other 
observations on Aden and the neighbouring country. These notes, 
though scanty, are not without interest, especially to European residents 
at Aden, because they date back to the beginning of the last century. 
“ On the 3rd of October in the morning we came in sight of the 
rugged mountains of Aden,” says Salt, “ and at two in the afternoon 
arrived abreast of the town. On our firing a gun, a boat came off 
with three fishermen, by whom we were advised to carry the vessel into 
1 Geogr. Journal, vol. 32 (1908) p. 564. 
2 For further details, c.f. Defiers A. Voyage au Yemen. Paris, 1889. 
3 Henry Salt, F.L.S., F.R.S., was born at Lichfield ca. 1785, and died between Cairo 
and Alexandria, 30tli August, 1827. He was secretary and draughtsman to Lord Valentia 
in India and Africa from 1802-1805. After having travelled in Abyssinia in 1805 and 1810, 
he published his “ Voyage to Abyssinia ” in 1814. His plants were given to Banks and are 
now in tne Herbarium of the British Museum. The Algae were sent to Dawson Turner 
(“ Fuci ” I V, 38). The genus “ Saltia BrowruP wassailed after his name, Cf„ J, J, Hall on 
the Life and Correspondence of Salt, 1854. 
