BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 221 



the country to Souza, passing by El Djem, where we slept ia a misera- 

 ble Arab hut^ and our nuns in another, who were dreadfully alarmed 

 during the night by the entrance of some hag-like Arab women ; we 

 were all aroused by their cries, and rushed to their aid. Before day- 

 light we were again on the saddle. I much regretted not having been 

 able to visit the noble ruins of a Eoman amphitheatre, which I could 

 only half see in the twilight. The whole of the way from Sfax we 

 found a desert ; El Djem is the only village which is found between it 

 and Souza. I could have passed a few days very profitably at Sfax, for 

 the vegetation is five or six weeks earlier there than at Tunis, but I was 

 anxious to reach Gabes- M. Espina however, the French Consul, who 

 has graduated at Paris, and is an amateur of botany, will most obligingly 



collect for me during my absence. 



Arrived on the 25th. I embarked for Gabes on the 28 th, in an open 

 boat. The coast is very low, and the sea shallow ; decked boats would 

 draw too much water. A rise and fall of the tide of from three to four 

 feet takes place, which is perceptible from Hamamet, as far as the lesser 

 deserts, opposite the isle of Djerba, the ancient Lotophagitis. We 

 reached Gabes on the 29th, at 3 p.m. 



Torrential rains had so swelled the waters of the Oued Gabes, that a 

 part of El Mentzel (Menarah of M. Pelissier's map) and of Djarah, in- 

 cluding the house of M. Mattel, had been swept away, and we installed 

 ourselves in the house of a Jew, the same in which the Count d'Escayrac 

 was lodged. My first impression of Gabes as a botanical station was 

 not favourable. Between the groups of villages, which taken together 

 form the so-called town, are extensive pastures ; behind the village is a 

 grove of Palm-trees, several leagues long, and, as they told me, two 

 leagues wide. Between the trees the ground is highly cultivated, and 

 irrigated by canals from the Oued Gabes, which bounds it on the south. 

 Here of course I found only the common weeds of this part of Africa. 

 Ckn tlie other side, in the plain, browsed upon by cattle, dominated 

 Aatragalm Stella ? or crttciatua?, A. Alexandrinus, Trigonella maritima, 

 Ztigophyllum album, several Salsolas, and Traganum nudatuin everywhere, 



A light rain having kept me within-doors, I tried to espy from the 



termi 



W 



appeared 



them. I soon saw that I was on the right beat; six times I returned 



