10 
HISTORY OF THE BOTANICAL 
several species were accompanied by coloured sketches which he had 
personally made from living specimens. Brandis mentions that Play- 
fair cultivated with great care a number of the more interesting Aden 
plants in the little garden surrounding his bungalow. 1 It was also 
owing to his exertions that Dr. G. Bird wood was finally enabled to give 
a description of the Frankincense tree, Boswellia Cirterii. 
I). Brandis, 1855.— When Dietrich Brandis 2 went to India for the 
first time in December 1855, he stopped for a day at Aden and collected 
46 plants. He is the only visitor we came across, who spoke of the 
‘-wonderful variety of the vegetation of Aden ” (wunderbarer Pfianzen- 
reichtum). He gave the number of plants growing^at Aden as amount- 
ing to about 260, and in this he came nearer the truth than any other 
botanist. A short sketch of his voyage appeared in (i Petermanu's 
Mitteilungen,” from which we give the following extracts relating to the 
flora of Aden : 
“ We went to the next valley where I had a very rich harvest, below as 
well as on the slopes. The most wonderful forms, not only of well 
known orders and genera but also quite new plants, which cannot be 
named without closer examination, grow out of the bare rubble, mostly in 
flower and fruit. Nowhere a trace of water; there is, indeed, only one 
well in the whole peninsula. It is only the luxuriant green of the Arabic 
Reseda and of the spiny Cap far is in full bloom, which point to the 
presence of dew and moisture in the air. Aftir my return from that 
valley so rich in plants I mounted a donkey and rode along the sea 
towards the town of Aden. Every step revealed new treasures : to the 
right of the road there was a splendid golden yellow Cleome with 
delicate foliage and covered with flowers, here and there one of those 
o-reen Euphorhia-teQQ s, spiny like several species of this protean genus 
in Greece, and between them the quaintest of annual weeds ; in short, 
I collected not less than 46 flowering plants in the course of three or 
four hours. The whole of Aden produces about 260 known species, all 
belonging to the phanerogams. Whilst the neighbouring mountainous 
country of Arabia Felix has almost regular rainy seasons and is, for 
tins reason, a fit place for mosses and ferns, we find that the peninsula of 
Aden receives some rain only every 18 months on the average.” 3 * * * * 8 
1 Petermann’s Mitteilungen (1857), p. -i80. 
2 Dietrich Brandis was born in .Bonn on the 31st March 1824. He studied at the 
Universities of Copenhagen, Gottingen, and Bonn. In 1856 he was appointed Superinten- 
dent of Forests in Pegu ; was Inspector General of Indian Forests from 1864-83 ; was 
knio-hted in 1887- He was one of the most eminent writers on Ind : an botany. Died in 1907. 
^Cf. Proc. Linm Soc. (1907-08), p. 46; Jouvn. Bot. (1907), p. 288; Gard. Chronicle (1907) 
I, 876 ; Indian Forester, 1907. 
8 Petermann’s Mitteilungen (1857), p. 480. 
