GRAND CAIRO. 75 
long weeping branches, pendent to the surface of chap. 
the water, could not escape notice. We brought ■ _ / ^ 
the seeds of it to the Garden of Natural History 
at Cambridge, where it has since flourished. 
This plant has been hitherto so little known in 
Europe, that although cultivated in some botanic 
gardens for more than half a century, it has 
never been properly recognised. About thirty 
years ago, Professor Jacquin, who received 
some seeds of it from the East Indies, de- 
scribed it as a new species, under the name of 
Mimosa speciosa ; and by this name it is still 
distino^uished in the Ermlish catalosfues. It 
grows promiscuously with the Gum Arabic 
Acacia, or Mimosa Nilotica: both of these, and 
also the Mimosa Senegal, are seen adorning the 
sides of the canal. HasseJquist says, that he saw 
the two last growing wild in the sandy desert, 
near the antient sepulchres of the EgyptiansK 
The Mimosa Nilotica^ or Acacia vera, produces incense, 
the frankincense. It is gathered in vast quan- 
tities, from trees growing near to the most 
northern bay of the Red Sea, at the foot of 
Mount Sinai; and it is called Thus, by the 
dealers in Egypt, from Thur and Thor, which is 
the name of a harbour in that bay; thereby 
(1) Travels to the East, p. 2oO. Lond. ITT6. 
