regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamorefigs, and a pitcher filled with water from the Nile."* Bruce mentions the singular fact, that, according to tradition, all the mummy-chests which have been found from former ages were made of sycamore, and that all those now found are constructed of the same material. The name of this tree has been applied very erroneously to the greater British maple (Acer pseudo-Platanus). The kolquall belongs to the family of the Euphorbiacea; it is also manifestly a species of Euphorbia, and is referred by botanists to E. antiquorum. When young the whole plant consists of a succulent green column resembling a cactus, five or six inches in diameter, and of the same thickness from the bottom to the top, fluted and angled, the angles beautifully scalloped. From the suminit of this column, which is at first like an aloe in substance, but afterward hard and woody, the branches arise, succulent and angular like the young plant, and, like it, never producing leaves. In this manner an extraordinary tree is formed, which attains the height of nearly forty feet. Flowers of a golden colour are put forth at the ends of the branches, and are succeeded by a deep crimson triangular fruit. In such prodigious abundance was this tree observed on Taranta, when that mountain was visited by Bruce, and so thickly did the individuals stand together, that the coloured fruit made them appear to be covered with a veil of the most vivid crimson. Like other Euphorbias, the kolquall possesses very acrid_properties, and exudes a copious milky fluid when wounded. Two of the finest branches of a flourishing tree, divided by Bruce, poured out a quantity that he estimated at the least to be four English gallons, and which was so caustic as to excoriate the fingers as if scalded with boiling water, and to leave an indelible stain on the sabre with which they were cut. In decay, the branches wither and become filled with a pungent powder. Bruce again met with this plant at the source of the Nile, but much degenerated in size and appearance. The Abyssinians prepare hides for tanning by means of its acrid juice, which is effectual in removing the hair.t A very beautiful tree of Abyssinia, called cusso (Hagenia Abyssinica), and belonging to the family Meliacea? is considered a specific in cases of worms,-a malady to which, it seems, the natives of that country are peculiarly subject. The tree is about twenty feet high, with a crooked trunk, and clothed with pinnated leaves of a pleasant opaque green colour. "It is planted always near churches, among the cedars which surround them, for the use of the town or village." It is indi * Norden's Travels, vol. i. p. 50, pl. 38. † Bruce's Travels, App. 8vo ed. p. 31. Ibid. App. p. 90. genous to the high country; and Bruce, in remarking that he never saw it in the Kolla, nor in Arabia, nor in any other part of Asia or Africa, considers it "an instance of the wisdom of Providence, that it does not extend beyond the limits of the disease of which it was intended to be the medicine or cure !"* The same author, in the fourth page from the quotation we have given, has favoured us with a most amusing specimen of logical deduction; he is speaking of the representation of the cusso in his work,-"As the figure of this plant is true and exact beyond all manner of exception, I cannot but think it may be found in latitudes 110 or 120 north, in the West Indies or America;" thus not only making the existence of the plant in those countries depend upon the fidelity of his drawing, but demolishing in anticipation his example of the wisdom of Providence as exhibited in confining the plant to Abyssinia. pro The next vegetable production which falls under particular notice is the balessam, balm, or balsam of Mecca (Balsamoden. dron Opobalsamum), belonging to the family Burseracee. It is a native of the eastern coast of Abyssinia, especially at Azab, and as far as the Strait of Bab el Mandeb. Bruce says, it is a small tree above fourteen feet high, with scraggy branches and flattened top, like those which are exposed to the seaside blasts; the appearance is consequently stunted, and the leaves are besides small and few. He supposes that it was transplanted to Arabia, and there cultivated at a very early period. This was the Balsamum Judaicum, or Balm of Gilead of antiquity and of the sacred writings, it being supposed at one time to be duced only in Judea. It seems, however, to have disappeared from that country, and the supply to have proceeded from Arabia. Many fables are connected with it. Tacitus says that the tree was so averse from iron that it trembled when a knife was laid near it, and it was thought the incision should be made with an instrument of ivory, glass, or stone. Bruce was told by Sidi Ali Taraboloussi that "the plant was no part of the creation of God in the six days, but that in the last of three very bloody battles which Mahomet fought with the noble Arabs of Harb, and his kinsmen the Beni Koreish, then pagans, at Beder Hunein, Mahomet prayed to God, and a grove of balsam-trees grew up from the blood of the slain upon the field of battle; and that with the balsam which flowed from them he touched the wounds even of those that were dead, and all those predestinated to be good Mussulmans afterward immediately came to life." An equally marvellous legend is the Arabic fable respecting El Wah, a shrub or tree not unlike our hawthorn in form and flower. From the wood of this tree they believe that Moses's rod was made when he sweetened the waters of Marah; † Ibid. App. p. 26. * Bruce's Travels, App. p. 89. E and they say also, that by means of a rod of the same wood, Kaleb Ibn el Waalid, the great destroyer of Christians, sweetened the waters at El Wah,-the Oasis Parva of the ancients, which were once bitter, and that he bestowed upon the place the name borne by the wonder-working plant. To return to the balsam-tree: the mode of obtaining it remains to be described. This, according to Bruce, is done by making incisions in the trunk at a particular season of the year, and receiving the fluid that issues from the wounds into small earthen bottles, the produce of every day being collected and poured into a larger bottle, which is kept closely corked. When first obtained, it is, says Bruce, " of a light yellow colour, apparently turbid, in which there is a whitish cast, which I apprehend arises from the globules of air that pervade the whole of it in its first state of fermentation; it then appears very light upon shaking. As it settles and cools it turns clear, and loses that milkiness which it first had. It has then the colour of honey, and appears more fixed and heavy. The smell at first is violent and strongly pungent, giving a sensation to the brain like to that of volatile salts when rashly drawn up by an incautious person. This lasts in proportion to its freshness; for being neglected, and the bottle uncorked, it quickly loses this quality, as it probably will at last by age, whatever care is taken of it."* The natives of the East use it medicinally in complaints of the stomach and bowels, as well as a preservative against the plague; but its chief value in the eyes of oriental ladies lies in its virtue as a cosmetic, although, as in the case of most other cosmetics, its effects are purely imaginary. Lady Mary Wortley Montague ascertained that it was in request by the ladies of the seraglio at Constantinople; but having tried it on her own person found it exceedingly irritating to the skin. Much of the virtue attributed to it depends on the costliness of the material. Among the Xanthoxylee we observe an Abyssinian shrub dedicated to the traveller we have so often referred to. It is the Brucea antidysenterica of botanists, the Wooginoos of the aborigines. Bruce describes it as growing in the greater part of Abyssinia, especially in the valleys of the low country. In Ras el Feel it is found abundantly, and is regarded as a specific in cases of dysentery, a disease which prevails there continually. The root is the part employed, and Bruce himself was restored to health by its use. The plant has recently been found to contain a poisonous principle, less powerful, but similar in its effects to strychnia, which has received the name of Brucia.t The coffee-tree (Coffea Arabica), belonging to the family called Cinchonacea, is one of the indigenous plants of Abyssinia, as well as of Arabia. It is an evergreen tree, or rather shrub, †Turner's Chymistry, ed. 4, p. 776. * Bruce's Travels, App. p. 29. fifteen or twenty feet in height, with an erect slender trunk and long flexible branches. The white flower resembles that of the common jasmine, and the fruit is like a small red cherry, enclosing within a soft pulp the two oval seeds familiar to every one as the coffee of commerce. At what period the use of coffee was adopted as an article of diet we have no information. On the authority of an Arabian manuscript, formerly in the library of the King of France, and now deposited in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Megaleddin, mufti of Aden in Arabia, had met with it in Persia, and on his return having continued to use the infusion, induced many others to follow his example. The beverage soon became popular in Aden, and rapidly extended to Mecca, Medina, and the other cities of Arabia Felix.* Coffee was introduced at Grand Cairo by dervises from Yemen resident in that city;t when it was however opposed on religious grounds, from the persuasion that it had an inebriating quality; and in 1523, Abdallah Ibrahim having denounced it in a sermon, a violent commotion was produced, and the parties came to blows. Upon this, says a writer in Rees's Cyclopædia, the Sheik Elbelet, commander of the city, assembled the doctors, and after giving a patient hearing to their tedious harangues, treated them all with coffee, first setting the example by drinking it himself, and then dismissed the assembly without uttering another word. By this prudent conduct the public peace was restored; and coffee continued to be drunk at Grand Cairo without further molestation. At Constantinople it had also to encounter religious opposition. The dervises had the sagacity to discover that coffee, when roasted, becomes a kind of coal; they therefore declaimed against it with fury, coal being one of the substances which their prophet declared not intended by God for human food. The mufti was of their party, and the coffee-houses were soon shut up. A more sensible mufti succeeded, who assured the faithful that roasted coffee is not coal, and they were again opened. Coffee experienced political persecution likewise in Constantinople, from the jealousy of the government, which looked upon the coffee-houses as little better than nurseries of sedition. It soon however triumphed over every obstacle, and being taxed, produced a considerable revenue. Public officers are appointed to inspect it and prepare it; and it is said that a refusal to supply a wife with coffee is one of the legal grounds of divorce in Turkey. Coffee was brought into notice in the west of Europe in the seventeenth century. The first coffee-house in London was opened in George Yard, Lombard-street, in 1652, by Pasqua, a Greek servant of Daniel Edwards, a Turkish merchant, and the *Rees's Cyclopædia, article Coffee. Rees's Cyclopædia, article Coffee. † D'Herbelot, p. 234. number soon increased. In 1675 Charles II. attempted to suppress them, as places of resort dangerous to government, but without effect; and in 1688 it was supposed that there were as many of these houses of entertainment in London as in Grand Cairo, besides those to be met with in the principal towns throughout the country. The coffee-tree begins to produce fruit in its second year, and yields according to its age and size, from one to four or five pounds. It is cultivated in the East and West Indies, and has become of vast importance in the commercial world. The quantity annually consumed in Europe alone is now probably not far short of two hundred millions of pounds. In Abyssinia its value is said to have been known from time immemorial. The Galla, who have frequently to cross uncultivated deserts, carry with them small balls, made up of pounded coffee and butter, and upon this food, in preference to bread or flesh, they perform long journeys. The next plant we have selected for a brief notice in this place is the wansey (Cordia Abyssinica), belonging to the Cordiacea. The wansey is an ornamental tree about twenty feet in height, and for some unknown reason has divine honours paid to it by the seven nations of the Galla. It is common in Abys sinia, and planted in all the towns. The flowering season is immediately after the periodical rains, when the pretty white blossoms expand so suddenly as to change the aspect of the country. Bruce indeed says that it blossoms the first day the rains cease; and that exactly on the 1st of September, for three years together, in a night's time it was covered with such a multitude of flowers that Gondar and the neighbouring towns appeared as if overspread with new-fallen snow. When called upon to choose a king, the representatives of the Galla nations meet under the shade of this tree, and the individual on whom the choice falls is crowned with a chaplet of wansey, and has a sceptre of the wood put into his hand, which is called Buco; this sceptre is carried before him like a mace wherever he goes, and is inseparable from royalty in the general meetings of the nations. A very remarkable plant is both described and figured by Bruce under the name of ensete, but in such a vague and unsatisfactory manner that it impossible to make out its botar.ical relations. It has been conjectured to be a kind of banana (Musa); but this is exceedingly doubtful, and we are rather inclined to think that it will prove to be a new genus, and the type of a new natural family of plants. The ensete is of frequent occurrence in Abyssinia, especially in the moist and warm parts of the country, but abounds "in that part of Mait, sha and Goutto west of the Nile, where there are large plantations of it, and it there, almost exclusive of any thing else, forms the food of the Galla inhabiting that province," Bruce |