DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS 



duced as follows : A series of trays are covered with fat or 

 grease ; the petals are placed on the grease and replaced by 

 fresh petals every twenty-four hours or so ; in the end the 

 grease is so saturated with scent that it forms pomade or 

 pomatum. 



Thus these half-desert countries are by no means without 

 intei-est from a botanical point of view. The conditions of 

 life are no doubt hard both for plants and animals. The 

 scent so richly produced depends upon the strong sunlight 

 and pure air. It is very useful, partly because it attracts 

 those useful insects which carry the pollen, but also because 

 such odours are distasteful to grazing animals. The gums, 

 incenses, thorns, and spines are all of great use to the plant 

 in its dangerous struggle for existence with hungry camels 

 and thirsty soil. 



When men understood how to iiTigate the soil, and before 

 they were foolish enough to cut down the forests which once 

 guarded the mountain springs, these half-deserts were ex- 

 ceedingly prosperous ; they were full of vigorous intellectual 

 life, and of strong, hardy, and industrious peoples. Asia 

 Minor, Turkey, Greece, and the Northern Coast of Africa 

 from Morocco to Egypt, were rich and wonderful countries. 



But it was not only the destruction of the forests that has 

 ruined them. The curse of Mohammed, the fatalism produced 

 by his religion, and the slavery which is a necessary part 

 thereof, have destroyed the people in mind, body, and spirit. 

 Even in Greece, Algiers, and Cyprus there has been as yet 

 but small recovery. 



In the future, not merely these countries, but Northern 

 Nigeria, British East Africa, and South-west Cape Colony, 

 may have as rich a history as Greece, if British brain and 

 energy are helped by the strong muscles of the Afr'ican. 



119 



