THE NATURALIST 
VOL. IV., NO. XXVIII.—JANUARY, 1839. 
ON A NEW PARASITIC PLANT (Mucor hyphcenes , Berk.) FOUND 
GROWING ON THE FRUIT OF THE DOUM OR THEBAIC PALM 
(Cucifera Thebaica ), IN UPPER EGYPT.* 
By William Hibbert, M.D., 
Assistant Surgeon to the Queen’s Royals. 
In the following pages I propose introducing to the notice of your readers a small 
plant which I accidentally detected growing upon the fruit of the Thebaic Palm, 
and evidently belonging to the last class of the Linnasan system, the Cryptogamic. 
The tree which bears this fruit will here only need a very brief notice, as the 
accurate description of M. Delisle is to be found in most elementary works. 
Upon the Nile it makes its first appearance about Girgeh, and throughout the 
country is much prized, although perhaps not to such a degree as the above 
author seems to consider. It is regarded as secondary, compared with the Date- 
tree, which is equally, or even more plentiful in the same situations. It is 
similar in structure and uses to the other Palms. The kernel is greatly relished 
by the natives, hard, gristly, and insipid as it is, and the nut itself bears a con¬ 
siderable resemblance, externally, to the Coco-nut; never, however, equalling it 
in size, the average being three inches by two and a half, growing in clusters, 
and, like the above, double. The wood, which in its growth differs from that of 
most other Palms, in branching and always possessing dichotomous stems, as 
■well as in the leaves, which somewhat resemble those of the Palmyra, an East- 
Indian species, and are used by the natives for most domestic purposes. The 
former, however, never attains the height of that of the Coco-nut tree. The 
tree could altogether be much more easily dispensed with than the Date, which 
in Upper Egypt yields one of the staple productions of food of the country. 
Now upon the nut of the Thebaic Palm, and apparently confined to the 
stomata, vegetates the parasitic Fungus about to be described. It commences 
* Transmitted from Bombay through the kindness of Sir James MAc(rRiGOR,Bart., M.D.; and 
communicated to this Journal by Dr. Lindley, F.R.S., Professor of Botany in the University 
of London_ Ed. 
2 A 
VOL. IV.—NO. XXVIII. 
