78 
FLORA OF ADEN . 
remained of it except the grove of date palms and a few doum palms. 
After heavy rain attempts are made to grow Indian corn and jowari 
in the neighbourhood of habitations with more or less success. 1 
When Brandis visited Aden in 185 5, the then Assistant Political 
Agent Lieutenant Playfair seems to have shown keen interest in the 
vegetation of the station. He cultivated with great care a number of 
the more interesting Aden plants in the little garden surrounding his 
bungalow. 2 
An attempt was made in 1875 to naturalise the Casuarina lateriflora, 
1,000 plants of which were sent from Reunion by Mr. Perry, His 
Britannic Majesty's Consul there. The experiment, however, proved un- 
successful, and General Schneider reported that it whs doubtful whether 
abundant vegetation would prove an altogether unmixed benefit, as it 
might render the climate more moist. 3 
The only thing at all answering at present to a garden in Aden 
Proper (i. e., the peninsula) is at the tanks. A number of foreign trees 
and shrubs have been planted in that place, and gardens led out, making 
the only evergreen spot in the Settlement. Amongst them the more 
conspicuous are, e.g., Thestpena pojoul'nea, Parkinsoma aculeata , etc., 
(see below) and also some of the indigenous plants : Adeniun obemm» 
Cajojoaris galeata , Poinciana elata } some species of Acacia , etc. 
At the houses of the Agents of the P. & O. and Messageries 
Maritimes, too, some plants have been collected, watered and looked after, 
as had also been done at the house of the 1st Assistant Resident and some 
others. But in all these places the space covered is not more than a 
few square yards. 4 5 
It would be interesting to find out what has become of the} gardens 
mentioned by Captain Haines in a letter to Sir Charles Malcolm, dated 
Aden, 2nd June 1843 : “ You will be pleased to hear, ” he wrote, “ that 
Aden continues to increase and that supplies of all kinds are plentiful, 
indeed everything can be obtained. The population is now about 
22,000, instead of 600, as in former times. It is a busy, lively place. 
We have had as many as four steamers a month, and trees and gardens 
are springing up on all sides. The Parsrs are certainly in advance of 
the Government gardeners. 
1 Yerbury, in epist. 
2 Petermann’s Mitteilungen (1857), p. 480. 
8 Hunter, 1. c. p. 7. 
4 Yerbury, in epist. 
5 In Journ. Roy. Geqgr. Soc, vol. 13 (1843), p. 196. 
