"As I saw the plant in Playfair's garden at Aden ... in
young leaf and covered with bloom, I was much struck by its elegant
singularity. The long racemes of green star-like flowers, tipped with the
red anthers of the stamens (like aigrettes of little stars of emerald set
with minute rubies), droop gracefully over the clusters of glossy,
glaucous leaves; and every part of the plant (bark, leaves, and flowers)
gives out the most refreshing lemon-like fragrance." (Birdwood in
Linnaean Transactions for 1869, pp. 109 seqq.; Hanbury and Flueckiger's
Pharmacographia, pp. 120 seqq.; Ritter, xii. 356 seqq.; Niebuhr,
Desc. de l'Arabie, I. p. 202, II. pp. 125-132.)
[1] "Drogue franche: - Qui a les qualites requises sans melange"
(Littre). "Franc ... Vrai, veritable" (Raynouard).
The mediaeval Olibanum was probably the Arabic Al-luban, but was
popularly interpreted as Oleum Libani. Dr. Birdwood saw at the Paris
Exhibition of 1867 samples of frankincense solemnly labelled as the
produce of Mount Lebanon!
"Professor Duemichen, of Strasburg, has discovered at the Temple of
Dair-el-Bahri, in Upper Egypt, paintings illustrating the traffic
carried on between Egypt and Arabia, as early as the 17th century B.C.
In these paintings there are representations, not only of bags of
olibanum, but also of olibanum-trees planted in tubs or boxes, being
conveyed by ship from Arabia to Egypt." (Hanbury and Flueckiger,
Pharmacographia, p. 121.)
[2] Published in J.R.G.S., vol. XV. (for 1845).
[3] By courtesy of the publishers, Messrs. Cassell, Petter, & Galpin.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CONCERNING THE GULF OF CALATU AND THE CITY SO CALLED.
Calatu is a great city, within a gulf which bears the name of the Gulf of
Calatu. It is a noble city, and lies 600 miles from Dufar towards the
north-west, upon the sea-shore. The people are Saracens, and are subject
to Hormos. And whenever the Melic of Hormos is at war with some prince
more potent than himself, he betakes himself to this city of Calatu,
because it is very strong, both from its position and its fortifications.
[NOTE 1]
They grow no corn here, but get it from abroad; for every merchant-vessel
that comes brings some. The haven is very large and good, and is
frequented by numerous ships with goods from India, and from this city the
spices and other merchandize are distributed among the cities and towns of
the interior. They also export many good Arab horses from this to India.
[NOTE 2] For, as I have told you before, the number of horses exported
from this and the other cities to India yearly is something astonishing.
One reason is that no horses are bred there, and another that they die as
soon as they get there, through ignorant handling; for the people there do
not know how to take care of them, and they feed their horses with cooked
victuals and all sorts of trash, as I have told you fully heretofore; and
besides all that they have no farriers.
