218 MB. B. M. BEDHE.VD ON THE FLOBA OF SINAI. 



including our own Festuca vivi^ara ; and Ave saw also the Wil- 

 low-bush (Safsaf), from which the peak above takes its name: 

 it was not yet in leaf, nor were there upon it any catkins. Re- 

 gretting that, owing to the depredations of tourists, a plant so 

 interesting, as giving a name to the summit above, should be 

 destroyed, I stuck several cuttings into the moist ground, and hope 

 that thus the Willow may be perpetuated. The ascent of the Bas- 

 es-Safsafeh is extremely steep ; but the glorious view from its 

 summit of the great plain Er-rahah, directly below, no doubt the 

 camping-place of the Israelites, fully repaid us for our fatigue. 

 On this hill I found a Verhascuniy with a yelloAvish leaf as thick 

 as a piece of felt, a small Malcomia, a neat Farsetia {F. lunariot- 

 des, abundance of Fhlomis, a Senecio much like our Eagwort, 

 and several Boragineae with (like all the above) yellow flowers 

 I believe, Onosma echioides^ Lithospermttm orientale^ and a yeUow- 

 flowered AncJinsa. 



The eastern side of the peninsula is on the whole more rich in 

 vegetation than the western valleys, Feiran alone excepted. 



Thus the Acacia seyal \^ not only much more frequent, but 

 grows to a far larger size, and is less damaged by the Arabs, who 

 cut them up for charcoal. I failed to discover any second species 

 of Acacia in the peninsula (as far as I am able to judge, not 

 having seen the trees in flower) ; there seems to me to be but the 

 one species, A, seyal — the alleged shittim-wood of Scripture, and 

 the traditional "burning bush." It is quite probable that the 

 Egyptian " Sont '' is a distinct species from the " Sayal " or Seneh 

 of the Bedouins ; indeed the leafless trees I saw near Cairo were 

 perceptibly different in habit, in the colour of the branches 

 and the length of the spines ; but in neither the eastern nor west- 

 em wadies, nor at Sinai itself, could I detect the smallest varia- 

 tion in these respects. 



So numerous are these Acacias that "Wady Sal, one of the 

 wildest and grandest of the desert wadies, derives its name from 

 them : in it there grows a Lycitfmt (Z. spinosum) with a Idac 

 flower and bright scarlet berries, an Amaranth (^j^rua j(ivanica) 

 with extremely woolly leaves and flower-spikes, and a curious 

 prickly Composite {Iphiona scahra) which has almost the appear- 

 ance of a gorse-bush, but with small, thistle-like, yellovdsh flowers. 

 This wady would be a paradise for an entomologist : with the ex- 

 ception of the Jordan valley at Jericho, I have nowhere else seen 

 such a number and variety of moths, beetles, centipedes, and 

 spiders, the latter of great size and surpassing agility. I much 

 regretted my entire ignorance of this subject. 



I 



