ME 



most conspicuous botanical objects in the landscape are groups of 

 Tamarix Pallasii, Movinga altera, Acacia set/al, Zizypht^s vulgaris, 

 and the curious and grotesque Asclepiad CaJotropis procera^ Br. 

 Setama monosperma, Boiss., is also a common bush ; but it flowers 

 later, and wa« not a very conspicuous object in the vegetation at 



the time of our visit. 



The oasis of Es Saffieh differs from that at Engedi in being 

 better watered and therefore more fertile, and in being inhabited by 

 settled and not by wandering tribes of Arabs. Unfortunately 

 the curious Arab village had been sacked and burned the day 

 before we arrived, by a lawless gang of Arabs from Petrsea ; and all 

 its unhappy inhabitants had flown, leaving their corn-crops, and 

 indigo, and the dead bodies of those "who had fallen in fight be- 

 hind them. As the enemy were apparently still lurking about, our 

 survey of the district was necessarily hasty and imperfect. Zizy- 

 pTius vulgaris and Salvadora persica are both most abundant at 

 Saffieh, much more abundant than at Engedi, whilst CaJotropis, 

 although common, is much less common than at the latter place ; 

 with the exception of Acacia seyal and Moringa aptera^ I saw no 

 other trees and bushes at Saffieh, although I kept a sharp look- 

 out, knowing at the time that Irby and Mangles had described the 

 oasis as abounding in an almost infinite variety of shrubs and 

 bushes. • 



The most curious and interesting locality in the south of the 

 Ghor, however, is the delta-like flat which extends from the embou- 

 chures of the Zuweirah and Mahauwat Wadies to the shore of the 

 Dead Sea, where I found 82 species of flowering plants, with few 

 exceptions, quite peculiar to this limited region, as regards the 

 Dead Sea valley and the rest of Palestine. 



The Zuweirah andMahauw^at "Wadiesare two very deep gorges 

 formed by the drainage of the eastern portion of the plateau of 

 Beersheba and the hills between it and the Dead Sea, and which 

 enter the Ghor just north of, and on the west side of, Jebel Us- 

 dum, about two miles from the Salt Lake. These two miles consist 

 of a flat delta formed of tertiary deposits washed dow n and deeply 

 channelled by occasional torrents, which, judging from appear- 

 ances, must be rare and violent. The channels are exceedingly 

 numerous, and vary from a few feet to many yards in breadth, and 

 from two to eighteen feet in depth; and although at the time of 

 our visit they were apparently perfectly dry even a foot or more 

 beneath the surface, they were fringed with Zizypliiis vulgaris, 

 Acacia seyal, Tamarix^ OcJiradenus, and Dcemia cordata ; and the 



