A PASSING GLANCE AT THE FLORA OF PALESTINE. 175 
A Passing Glance at the Flora of Palestine. 
By Rev. Hueu Macmitxan, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E, 
{Read 26th February, 1895. ] 
PALESTINE was Divinely designated “‘a land flowing with milk 
and honey.” But that description hardly applies toit now. The 
great outlines of the scenery are still very much what they ever 
were, but the subordinate features are almost entirely altered. 
The country is laid waste ; its terraces broken down, ‘and the soil 
washed away from them ; its woods and forests have disappeared ; 
and thorns and thistles have covered its fields, long withdrawn 
from cultivation. The first sight of Palestine is more or less 
disenchanting for these reasons. No one can recognise the sacred 
scenes of his imagination in the hoary wilderness, haggard and 
austere, which spreads before his eyes. 
And yet, in spite of all these changes, no country possesses a 
richer or more varied flora. It is questionable, indeed, if the 
fact of its being so generally uncultivated has not provided 
more favourable conditions for the growth and spread of wild 
flowers, than when every inch of its soil was made productive. 
More plants are crowded together in the extreme south of 
Africa than in any other part of the globe; and the same 
may be said of the Holy Land. It represents the region of 
maximum species. This result is to be attributed to the variety 
of its physical structure and conformation, as well as to the variety 
of its climate and meteorology. Indeed, there is no country in the 
world which presents such a variety within the same limited area. 
In Palestine we see spread out horizontally, what we see vertically 
on any lofty mountain rising above the snow-line in the tropics—a 
near conjunction of different types of vegetable life, ranging from 
the arctic plants of the snowy summit to the tropical botany at 
the base. These two extremes exist in a temperate climate. 
A tropical mountain, which would exhibit vertically these con- 
trasts of climate and of productions, would have its general surface 
