A PASSING GLANCE AT THE ‘FLORA OF PALESTINE. 181 
afforded ; the day and hour of our arrival at and departure from 
any particular place was fixed beforehand, and could not be changed 
- without altering the arrangements of the whole tour. I journeyed 
from Jaffa to Jerusalem by carriage, encamping one night at 
Latroun, and the pace was too fast and continuous to allow me 
to alight and observe more particularly, or gather any unusual 
plant which attracted my attention; and during the rest of my 
travels through Palestine, from Hebron to Damascus, I was on 
horseback, and was too inexpert an equestrian to get on and 
off my horse every few minutes to examine the novel flora. 
It would have required an accomplished circus-rider to perform 
this feat, without the risk of being left behind by the rest of 
the party, and falling into the hands of some predatory 
Bedouin. My horse, too, exhibited distinct signs of dislike 
to my inconvenient pursuits. Accustomed to go at a steady 
continuous pace day after day and hour after hour, in the 
line of cavalcade, from morning to night, he did not understand 
why his rider should stop and dismount every few minutes to 
pluck up some worthless wayside weed. He was all impatience 
to goon. It was only during the short space of time before we 
departed in the morning from any place, when we rested at noon 
for lunch, and when we arrived in the evening at our camping 
ground, that I could do a little botanizing. But except in the 
morning I was usually far too tired to be tempted to move a step 
from the resting-place in search of plants. 
Then, too, I had no facilities for drying plants, and for 
carrying about with me the cumbrous materials required in the 
process. I was too deadbeat at the end of each day’s journey 
to look after the few specimens I had collected, and preserve 
them properly. In consequence, they were wasted, and had to 
be thrown away as useless. In these circumstances I did almost 
no collecting at all. To add to my disabilities, a tropical storm 
burst upon us between the Dead Sea and Jericho, wetted every- 
thing I had through and through, destroyed all my specimens, and 
reduced all my botanical paper to hopeless pulp. So I had to 
content myself with mere observation of the wayside flora, and 
with recording in my note-book, or oftenest with storing up in my 
memory—which as regards such matters I am thankful to say is 
very retentive, and may be relied upon—the peculiarities of the 
