_Indian Fig_, or _Prickly Pear (Cactus Opuntia)_, called _Takanareele_, by the Shelluhs, and _Kermuse d’Ensarrah_, by the Arabs and Moors. The tree which produces this fruit grows from ten to twenty feet in height; its leaves, from the sides of which the fruit springs, are thick and succulent, and impregnated with a transparent mucilaginous juice, which, from its peculiarly cooling and anti-inflammatory qualities, was much used with gum ammoniac, during the plague, for cataplasms and fumigations. The Indian fig is very different from other figs; when ripe, it is of an oval form, and of a colour inclining to orange or yellow; it has a thick succulent rind, so covered with fine sharp prickles, as to render leather gloves, or some other substitute necessary, when peeling it. This fruit is of an extraordinary refrigerating quality, and is, on that account, eaten in the early part of the morning by the people of Haha and Suse, where it abounds. In hot weather it is a grateful restorative to the relaxed state of the bowels. The tree grows in stony arid situations, and frequently affords refreshment to the traveller, when he least expects to find so cooling a fruit. _Almonds._—The quantities of this fruit produced in the province of Suse are incalculable, and have, latterly, been much increased. The bitter kind is exported to Europe; but the sweet, being an article of food, has been, by the present Emperor, prohibited from exportation, which has recently diminished considerably the cultivation of this nutritious fruit. _Gum Sandrac Tree._—Thuya, Arar, or Sandrac-tree, is probably the Arbor vitæ of Theophrastus: it is similar in leaf to the juniper, and, besides producing the gum sandrac, the wood is invaluable, being somewhat like cedar, having a similar smell, and being impenetrable to the worm; it is, however, a harder wood, and would be a great acquisition in ship-building; and _there are_ means of procuring it. The roofs of houses, and cielings of rooms, are made of this unperishable wood. _El Rassul._—A small plant little known, but used by the tanners in the preparation of leather. _Tizra_, or _Seuhayha._—A shrub about three feet high, used also in the preparation of leather; it grows near the Jibbel Heddid in the plains[116] of Akkermute, in the province of Shedma. (See the map of West Barbary).