Among the most useful trees growing without cultivation, must be reckoned: the gum-tree, the tamarind, the beautiful tabaldi, and the egelit before mentioned. The gum-tree (_mimosa Nilotica_) as it is termed in books, merits a different denomination in Kordofan, for the shape of the tree, its leaves and spines, differ materially from those of the mimosa Nilotica, properly so called. The latter tree yields common gum only, whereas that of Kordofan is of the finest description, so that it is erroneously distinguished by the name of gum-Arabic. In some parts of the country, the mimosa forms whole forests of vast extent; but the district of Bara furnishes the largest quantity of gum. The harvest is modified by the annual fall of rain, for, if it rain much, the trees sweat the more. The gum exudes from the bark of the stem and large branches, nearly in the same manner as the resinous exudation from the cherry-trees of Europe. In digging for a beetle, I casually observed that the gum proceeds from the root also. Sennaar, which is situated under the same degree of latitude as Kordofan, yields a far less quantity of this product. The gathering takes place a few months after the rain, in the months of December, January, and February, it is an exceedingly profitable affair to the government, and therefore a monopoly. But even in this undertaking, the Egyptians act with unparalleled neglect, and do not interfere when they see whole forests of gum-trees hewn down, and the ground converted into dockn fields, although immense tracts of the country far better adapted for arable land remain uncultivated, by making use of which, the gum-trees would be spared. But the government does not trouble itself about such trifles, it merely scrapes together that which comes within its reach without paying the slightest attention to ulterior consequences. Of the plantation of young trees and the extirpation of such as are unprofitable, it has no idea, nature must attend to that business. The Garrat,[59] whose pod is employed in tanning, and the tamarisk (_tamarindus Indica_) are likewise frequently seen in the province, but not in the same abundance as the gum-tree. The pods of the tamarind are collected and trodden into the form of cakes, which are dried, and either kept for domestic use or converted into commodity. A large quantity of this production is consumed in the country. This tree suffers greatly by the locusts; for sometimes the inflorescence, sometimes the fruit, is totally devoured by these destructive insects, and in those years, there is, of course, a scarcity of this fruit in many villages.