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the physical geography of the region was most varied, its most 
marked feature being a deep valley, trending from Syria on the 
north to the Gulf of Arabah on the south, and enclosing the 
main river systems, viz., the Orontes, the Leontes, and the 
Jordan, with Lake Chilowith and the Dead Sea. The northern 
portion of this valley is quite shallow, the Orontes flowing out 
through a gorge to the Mediterranean Sea; the Leontes also 
flows out through a rocky barrier. _ Both these rivers rise in an 
ancient lake-bed, the former flowing north, the latter south; the 
Jordan, flowing south, empties into the Dead Sea at a depression 
of 1,294 feet below the Mediterranean. The speaker suggested 
that this whole valley may have originated in a fault. 
This valley is enclosed to the west by the Messire and 
Lebanon Mts. of Syria, the latter 10,000 to 12,000 feet high, 
followed to the south by the table-land of Palestine. To the 
east it is bounded by Anti-Lebanon on the north, and the moun- 
tains of Gilead and Moab to the south. All these mountains, 
with the exception of some outlying spurs of ata Lebanon, are 
of limestone of Cretaceous age. 
The region to the east is mainly volcanic. The Bashan Mts, 
are forty miles east of the Jordan, and from three peaks just north 
of these a large lava-flow has spread in triangular form towards 
_ the west. 
This structure of the country has influenced the distribution 
of plants to a very marked degree. Dr. Post had recognized the © 
following floral belts : 
(1.) The Coast Plain, a narrow strip bordering the Mediter- 
ranean, and having the ordinary plants of other shores of that 
sea, its flora being the least specialized of any. 
(2.) The Coast Range of Mountains, to about 4,000 feet altt- 
tude, whose flora has strong analogies with the mountains of 
Greece and Asia Minor, Cyprus and Crete. 
(3-) The Alpine and Sub-Alpine Regions. These have a 
highly specialized flora, whose most marked feature is the great 
abundance of spiny species of Astragalus, Onobrychis, etc. ; 
% - Acantholemon, which forms domes of awl-shaped foliage two or 
" three feet in diameter, and Evodium tripomaniefolium. The 
goats devour everything not protected by spines. The great 
