t 



MB. B. T. liOWI^E ON^ THE TEGETATIOiN OF THE DEAD SEA. 203 



beds of the channels were dotted over with low scrubby bushes 

 of Fagonia and Gymnocarpum, and with showy tufts of Cleome 

 irinervia and Salvia controversa. In fact, the whole of the 82 

 species which I found were, with few exceptions, confined to the 

 channels or their immediate vicinity, and every plant seemed to 

 be in flower ; yet we had to send nearly two miles up the Zuweirab 

 Wady for water, which existed only in deep rock-pools, the remains 

 of former rains. The entire delta has a very desolate aspect. The 

 Eose of Jericho (Anasfafica) grows in its dryest parts; but it 

 is fringed at the edge of the lake by a bright green marsh of 

 Salsolas, 



On examining the list of plants which I found in this region, it 

 will be seen that the flora, although very different from the flora 

 of the rest of Palestine, is essentially Mediterranean in type. Its 

 aflSnities, however, are all with the floras of northern Africa, 

 especially with the desert-floras of Upper Egypt and Nubia. It 

 will also be found to be closely related with that of Aden in 

 the south, and the Canaries in the west. The flora of this delta 

 appears, moreover, to be precisely similar to that of xVrabIa Petrsea ; 

 at least I am led to this belief by a comparison of it with tlie collec- 

 tion made there by Major M'Donald,now in the Herbarium at Kew. 



It will be seen, on examining the lists I have appended to this 

 paper, that, of the 94 species collected by myself in the south of 

 the Dead Sea yalley, 29 or 30 only are European plants ; and these 

 are chiefly weeds of a very wide distribution : why such plants as 

 Tribulus ferresfris, Emex spinosus, SoJanum nigrum, and Capsella 

 iursa 2>asto7ns should form so large a part of the European element 

 m this flora, I am unable to form any idea. With 



northern 



many have a much 'wider distribution. 



On the other hand over 50 species are decidedly African, not 

 extending into Europe ; and many of these are exceedingly local ; 

 not more than one-third extend into India ; and those which do 

 are chiefly natives of Sind and Affghanistan, affe<ning arid regions : 

 and none of these African species seem to have a very w 

 distribution, with the exception of ji^ruajavanica. 



Although two of the most remarkable forms of the southern 

 Ghor, Calotropis procera and Salvadora persica, are Indian plants, 

 yet these are equally common in Upper Egypt and Nubia ; so that 

 I do not think there is anything to warrant the ordinary belief 

 that the flora of the south of the Ghor has an Indian type. 



Excluding the exceedingly widely distributed European plants 



p2 



