m:e. b. t. lowne on the yegetation or the dead sea, 201 



On the Vegetation of the Western and Southern shores of the 

 Dead Sea, By B. T. LoK^xE, M.E.C.S. Eng. Communicated 

 by Dr. Hooker, F.RS, 



[Bead April 6, 1865,] 



The least-known flora of Palestine is that of the Ghor or Jor- 

 dan valley ; and, as far as I am aware, the flora of the south of 

 the Dead Sea valley was almost if not entirely unknown before 

 my visit in January 1864, in company with the Eev. H. B. Tris- 

 tram and his party. With the assistance of the Koyal Society, 

 and under the guidance of that distinguished traveller, 1 was 

 enabled to stay several days in the least frequented and most 

 dangerous part of the Dead Sea valley, and I propose with your 

 leave to present to you this evening the results of my researches 

 in that region. 



General Character of the Vegetation near the Dead Sea, — The 

 greater 2)art of the western and southern shores of the Dead 

 Sea, between Ain Terabeh and the oasis Es Saffieh, is quite 

 destitute of vegetation, except occasional patches of Lycimn eu- 

 Top(Bum^ Salvia wgyptiaca^ Lagurns ovatus^ aud one or two compo- 

 site plants which I have not been able to determine, owing to the 

 state they were in at the time of our visit. At Ain Terabeh 

 there is a dense thicket of reeds {Arundo donax) with a marsh of 

 Salsolas, Atriplex halimus, and here aud there a clump of Ta- 

 marisks, probably T. Pallasii or a species very near it. Ain Tera- 

 beh was the only place where I found jEluropiis Icevis ; but Dr. 

 Hooker found this remarkable grass nearer the northern end of 

 the sea. Beyond Ain Terabeh, travelling south, except at Engedi, 

 Saffieh, and on the flat plain between the Zuweirah and Mahauwat 

 Wadies, all the vegetation I observed, except that already men- 

 tioned, were a few tamarisks, one or two small Acacia trees (^Acacia 

 ^cyaT)^ and a single specimen of Astragalus with pur[)le flowers 

 (near A. hypoglottis, Linn.). Our march was, however, very hurried 

 and fatiguing whilst passing over these desert regions, and I speak 

 from memory and not from notes. 



The banks of the streams at Engedi are in many places covered 

 ^'^th luxuriant vegetation, dense thickets of reeds {Arundo donax)^ 

 Salix octandra, and Salvadora persica overhanging them, with 

 here and there a patch of Typha latifolia, and an apparently new 

 species of Pennisetum ; whilst immense fronds of Maiden*8 Hair 

 X ern {Adiantum capillus Veneris) hang from the damp shady parts 

 of the rocks. The general appearance of the oasis, however, is 

 exceedingly desolate : the Arabs cultivate but little com ; and the 



I-INX. PROC. — BOTAXT, TOIi. IX. F 



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