MB. B. M. BEDHEAD OK THE FLOEA OF SINAI. 213 



twiated branches, armed with long grey spines (many as much as 

 four inches and upwards in length). The trees were only just 

 coming into leaf, and no flowers were visible ; yet I found one or 

 two quite young tender seed-vessels, as though the plant occa- 

 sionally threw out flowers during the winter season : the same 

 thing I have before remarked in the case of the Nitraria. 



It was most refreshing to reach Wady el Taiyibeh, " the good 

 valley," with its comparative abundance of water and the con- 

 stant accompaniment of that element in this region, verdure. 

 Graceful tufts of wild date-palms overhung the shallow stream, 

 m which I was pleased to recognize our English Nasturtimn qffi* 

 cinale, and along with it (as I believe) its frequent companion 

 Slum nodiflorum. 



Mathiola odoratissima was most abundant, and each night per- 

 fumed the air with its fragrance. 



Sparfium monospermum was here and henceforward In full 

 beauty ; and a charming shrub it is ; it often aff*orded us, as it did 

 the prophet of old, a certain amount of shelter under its branches. 

 This valley is hemmed in by precipitous walls of sandy rock of 

 most varied colouring : beginning with the Avhite of the chalk, 

 we have many shades of grey, yellow, olive-green, brown, and red 

 varying to purple, up to the black masses of trap rock. On these 

 rocks we for the first time in the Desert found the Capparis spU 

 nosa (Arab. Asaf, or Lasaf)^ growing in bright green tufts, hang- 

 ing down from the clefts of the rocks, with far more robust and 

 fleshy leaves than in Italy or Sicily. 



We encamped in a delightful spot not far from the Bed Sea, 

 called Abu Selima, in the midst of magnificent scenery : the 

 little plain is bounded by a chain of hills unparalleled in the 

 gorgeousness of their colouring ; it is strewn with their debris, 

 granite boulders of a reddish colour, and is thickly covered w4th 

 shrubs of dwarf olive-green Salicornia, On the shore were enor- 

 mous masses of white coral {Madrepora), some spreading like 

 ferns from a central root, with a diameter of a yard and more. 

 I was pleased to find on the shore here the lovely TrocTius Phara* 

 onis, and various Fhasianellce, Cardice, Margaritiphorce, <S:c. 



Our course the following day, March 3, led iis close along the 

 shores, the rocks at one place projecting so far as to compel the 

 camels, greatly against their inclination, to wade in the sea. On 

 reaching the plain El Murkhah, where as at Abu Selima, there is 

 niuch Salicornia, we for the first time approach the granite of the 

 higher ranges of the peninsula, and, entering Wady Shellal, find 



