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MB. E. M. EEDHEAD 01^ THE FLORA OF SIKAT. 209 



{O. ladius), and in the gardens of the numerous villas many fine 

 exotics, which we in England are unused to see in the open 

 air, as Pomsettia pulcherrima^ Sparrmannia africana^ Hahro- 

 thamnns, and various Cassice^ Melice^ CasaJpinice, Acadce, Sau- 



The Mohammedau cemeteries are thickly planted with a species 

 of Aloe, now bearing spikes of orange flowers. 



At Cairo everything was sviffering from recent severe frosts, a 

 most unusual occurrence there. The plantains and sugar-canes 

 were almost destroyed ; and the trees in the open space called 

 Ezbekeeh were much shrivelled^ the only one in flower being the 

 fragrant Acacia farnesiana ; the venerable Ficus sycomorus^ at 

 Matareeh, said traditionally to be the one under which the Holy 

 Family rested during their flight, showed in its dry, brittle foliage 

 the effects of the unusual cold as clearly as did the dead branches of 

 the orange-trees in the same garden. The sycamores on the banks 

 of the !N"ile at Old Cairo were less affected by the cold, and were 

 bearing their fruit abundantly, growing as it does in a singular 

 manner out of the gnarled trunk of the tree, and not amidst the 

 the foliage. 



In the sandy tract just before reaching the Pyramids, I found 

 the lovely Iris sisyrinchium (>S. majus) in profusion, its elegant and 

 fragrant flowers contrasting vividly with the yellow sand in which 

 it grew : it was the only plant I saw in flower in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cairo. 



We started from Cairo to cross the Desert, on camels, on the 

 morning of February 24. Few tracts on the earth's surface can 

 be less interesting botanically tlian the Desert immediately east 

 of Cairo, Leaving behind us the domes and minarets of the city, 

 and the dark green valley of the [N'ile, we enter at once upon 9 

 vast undulating plain of grey gravel (with fragments of silicified 

 wood), broken at intervals by sandy hillocks. 



Sea-like in its vastness and in its silence, it is entirely devoid 

 of vegetation ; and our course was by no means enlivened, although 

 most distinctly marked, by the bleached skeletons of camels, which 

 line the track all the way to Suez ; a few grey eagles soaring 

 above, and a sand-coloured cricket, were the only living things 

 we saw during our first day's journey ; the next day we found some 

 dead shells of a Helix, indicating our approach to vegetable 

 life, and at the time of our midday halt, near the sixth station*, 



* These stations were erected, for the accommodation of travellers between 



* 



Cairo and Suez, prior to the construction of the railway- 



