Page 480 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

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xxiv.] SOUTHERN ARABIA. 449

blood and incense trees are very numerous.
1 have often seen the former, but never could

obtain a view of the latter, which is however
described to me as growing on the most ele­

vated hills in a barren soil where no other
tree will thrive. A considerable quantity of
the gum exudes naturally, but the process is
also aided in some districts by making inci­
sions in the trunk. I found the average
height of the Dracccna draco to vary from
eighteen to twenty feet, and its circum­
ference from three to five. When young

they have usually but one stem and no
branches, the leaves being disposed in the
form of a star round the upper part, but as
they get older they may be seen with three,
four, and even five stems. These branches
consist of a number of elongated tubes,
united together, but much contracted in size
at their point of junction, which is so irregu­
lar that they usually appear awry. From

the extremity of each branch a cluster of
leaves rises perpendicularly, which are dis­

posed in a circular form, radiating from
the centre: they are sword-like and of a
coriaceous nature, the outer being from ten
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