CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VIII 



SCRUB 



PAGB 



Famous countries which were covered by it — Trees which are colon- 

 izing- the desert — Acacia scrub in East Africa, game and lions — 

 Battle between acacia and camels, etc. — Australian half-deserts 

 — Explorers' fate — Queen Hatasu and the first geographical 

 expedition recorded — Frankincense, myrrh, gums, and odorous 

 resins — Manna — Ladanum — Burning bush — Olives, oranges, and 

 perfume farms — Story of roses — Bulgarian attar of roses — How 

 pomade is made — Cutting down of forests and Mohammed . 107 



CHAPTER IX 



ON TEA, COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, AND TOBACCO 



English tea-drinking- — Story of our tea — Assam coolies — Manufac- 

 ture in India and China — Celestial moisture — Danger of tea — 

 The hermit and his intelligent goat — Government coffee and 

 cafes — Chicory — Chocolate — Aztecs — Kola and its curious effects 

 — Tobacco — Sir Walter Raleigh — Great emperors and tobacco — 

 Could we grow tobacco ? — Story of a Sumatra cigar — Danger of 

 young people smoking tobacco . . . . . 120 



CHAPTER X 



ON DESERTS 



What are deserts like? — Camel-riding — Afterglow — Darwin in 

 South America — Big Bad Lands — Plants which train themselves 

 to endure thirst — Cactus and euphorbia — Curious shapes — Grey 

 hairs — Ice-plant — Esparto grass — Retama — Colocynth — Sudden 

 flowering of the Karoo — Short-lived flowers — Colorado Desert — 

 Date palms on the Nile — Irrigation in Egypt— The creaking 

 Sakkieh— Alexandria hills — The Nile and Euphrates . . 131 



CHAPTER XI 



THE STORY OF THE FIELDS 



What was Ancient Britain? — Marshes and bittern— Oak forest — 

 Pines — Savage country — Cornfield — Fire — Ice — Forest — Worms 

 —Paleolithic family — The first farmers— Alfred the Great's first 

 Government agricultural leaflet — Dr. Johnson — Prince Charlie's 

 time — Misery of our forefathers — Oatmeal, milk, and cabbages — 

 Patrick Miller — Tennyson's Northern Farmer — Flourishing 

 days of 1830 to 1870 — Derelict farmhouses and abandoned crofts 

 — Where have the people gone ? — Will they come back ? . . 143 



s 



