/LG 
Vol. VI., No. 29.) BULLETIN oF THE TORREY Boranica CLus. [New York, May, 1877. 
§ 155. Botanical Geography of Syria.” 
Syria is a geographical expression for the country bounded on 
the north by Mt. Taurus, on the south by Arabia Petraea, on the 
west by the Mediterranean, and on the east by the desert plains 
which lie between it and the Euphrates. Few regions, not insular, 
have such pronounced limits, and few therefore offer such decided 
characters to the Naturalist. Furthermore, in proportion to its 
extent, Syria presents more diversities of elevation, soil, climate, and 
scenery than any country in the world. Its mountains are almost 
alpine. It has tropical valleys, miniature steppes, rolling slopes, 
maritime plains, terraced Italian hills, Scottish highlands, a desert 
on the south, and a boundless tableland on its eastern border, all in 
a space not larger than the State of New York. Moreover, as the 
meeting point of three continents it shares the flora and fauna of 
all. On Lebanon are types which are borrowed from the Carpathians 
and the Caucasus on the one hand, and the Himalayas on the other. 
On the sea coast are genera and species shared with Mediterranean 
Europe and Africa. In the Jordan Valley and around the Dead 
Sea are Indian and African types in tropical luxuriance. When 
the Flora of this land comes to be written, it will be seen that no 
part of the earth’s surface of equal extent embraces so cosmopolitan 
a collection of the great vegetable types and so copious a flora. 
The history of Nature is epitomized in the microcosm of Syria as 
well as the history of humanity. 
A glance at the map of the eastern Mediterranean and adjacent 
regions will show a long coast-line, extending with few indentations 
from Iskanderuna (near the battle-field of Issus) to the Nahr el Arish, 
the ancient “ river of Egypt.” At a varying distance, never exeeed- 
ing a few miles, from this line of coast is a range of mountains be- 
ginning with Mt. Casius, an isolated peak 5318 feet in height, situated 
between Antioch and Lattakia. This range extends southward through 
thé country of the Nusairiyeh, attaining a volume and elevation 
similar to the Catskills, and ending in a stony plain in the latitude 
of the ancient Arvad. This plain, which runs east and west and is 
traversed by two considerable river beds, is about ten miles in 
breadth (¢. ¢., from north to south) and thirty in length (7. ¢, from 
east to west.) It is coterminous with the the littoral plain on the 
west, and Ceele-Syria on the east. It attains an elevation of about 
tooo feet. 
To the south of this plain rises abruptly the steep north wall of 
Lebanon, and but a few miles south are the highest peaks of the 
range, Jebel Makmel, Fim el Mizab, and Dhohr el Kodhib, which 
attain an elevation of more than 10,000 feet above the Mediterranean. 
Lebanon terminates southward, with almost equal abruptness, at 
a point near the latitude of Sidon. A gap similar to the one divid- 
ing the Nusairy mountains from Lebanon separates Lebanon from 
the hill country of Galilee. The range which constitutes the back- 
bone of Palestine begins at the headland known as Shukif, the 
Belfort of the middle ages, and stretches southward through Galilee, 
Samaria, and Judea to Arabia Petra. 
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