Identifier: travelstodiscov05bruc (find matches)
Title: Travels to discover the source of the Nile, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 : in five volumes
Year: 1790 (1790s)
Authors: Bruce, James, 1730-1794 Russell E. Train Africana Collection (Smithsonian Institution. Libraries) DSI
Subjects: Bruce, James, 1730-1794 Natural history Explorers
Publisher: Edinburgh : Printed by J. Ruthven, for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, London
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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fear there Vol. V. H would 44 APPENDIX. would be fome objection to this fuppofition: Firft, on ac-count of the flower, which is certainly rofaceous, compo-fed of feveral petals, and is not campaniform : Secondly,That it produces no fort of gum, either fpontaneoufly orupon incifion, at no period of its growth ; therefore I imagine that the gum which comes from Africa in small pieces, firft white on its arrival, then turning yellow by age,is not the produce of this tree, which, it may be depended upon, produces no gum whatever. Juba the younger is faid, by Pliny, to have given this name to the plant, calling it after his own phyfician, brotherto Mufa phyfician to Auguftus. We need not trouble our-felves with what Juba fays of it, he is a worfe naturaliftand worfe hiftorian than the JNubian geographer. RACK. THIS is a large tree, and feems peculiar to warm climates.It abounds in Arabia Felix, in Abyffinia, that is, in thelow part of it, and in r\ubia. The firft place I faw it in wasi in
Title of the image : rack, which is one of the Arab names for Salvadora persica. The text below adds that tooth-picks are made from the twigs, which is a major use of this tree. Text Appearing After Image:
1 ).y?s7rA ? It>//t//>// /MA/Ai/./Jir C/?fy$p.l>y t-.A,/>ff/,t(W ScCo. APPENDIX. 45 in Raback, a port in the Red Sea, where I difcovered thisAngularity, that it grew in the fea within low-water mark.When we arrived at Mafuah, in making a plan of the har-bour, I faw a number of thefe in two iflands both uninha-bited, and without water, the one called Shckh Scide, theother Toulahout. Thefe two -iflands are conftantly over-flowed by fait water, and though they are ftrangers to frefh,they yet produce large Rack-trees, which appear in a flou-rifhing ftate, as if planted in a fituation defigned for themby nature. The Arabians, it is faid, make boats of this tree. Itswood is fo hardened by the fea, and alfo fo bitter in tafle,that no worm whatever will touch it. Of this tree the Ara-bians alfo make tooth-picks, thefe they fell in fmall bundlesat Mecca, and arc reputed to be favourable to the teeth,gums, and breath. The reader will have obferved frequent mention of fometrees found

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