Books and Current Literature. 229 



American botanists who are familiar with tho south- 

 western I'nited States will be interested in the striking 

 romi)aris()n of I'alestine with southern California. In the 

 latter, from Los .Vnjicles fifty miles north-eastward across 

 the mountains to tlic Mojave Desert the same mai-ked and 

 rai)id chanucs are observed as in the same distance from the 

 Meriditerranean to the Dead Sea. ''The immediate coast 

 of California is cooler than that of Palestine .... 

 but the orange «»roves at the foot of the mountains corres- 

 pond to those of Jaffa, tlu^ urain fields in the u])land valleys 

 are not unlike those of Judea and the ^lojave Desert at the 

 eastern l)ase is of the same ty])e as that which surrounds the 

 Dead Sea." What southern California would be without 

 irriuation may be jdctured in part from the ])res(Mit cimdi- 

 tion of Palestine. The latter country, like the former, lacks 

 summei- rains, and if the winter rains are either late in be 

 binnino- or cease too early, a famine is the likely re-^ult. 

 The inevitable outcome of such untoward conditions, which 

 as sh(>wn by the author liavc become greatly accentuated 

 within the historical period, is seen in a gi-eat decrease of 

 productivity of the soiL the disappearance of olive orchards 

 and vineyards from the terraces they once occupied and the 

 loss from the landsca])e of noble oaks and other trees that 

 J,^^V(' the land so mncli of its beauty in the days of psalmist 

 and prophets. 



Tlie evidence foi- these concjusioiis is cumnhilive, and 

 those who would feel its full f(U'ce must follow the author in 

 the ,<»ra]»hic story of his joui-neys from the Dead Sea and the 

 Neireb to I^ebanon and ]*almyi-a, and in bis masterly pre- 

 sentation of jthysical and iiistoi-iral data. T<» tliose who 

 have read "Cosmos," or any other nionnuiental "shy at the 

 universe," with resultini: weariness; of soul, or h iv > found 

 it an unjirateful task to read "The Laud and ilie ISook" and 

 other works which us<' the jdivsical features of Palestine 

 merely as contii-mation cd" biblical nari-ative, this ]»ook of 

 nnntiniiton's will prove a double treasure, i-iiiidly scientific 

 in its methods and conceptions and at the same time broad- 

 ly hospitable to every form of truth that history or tradi- 



