416 ECONOMIC FORESTRY. 
Travellers’-tree, or “ Ravenala” (Urania speciosa; nat. order, Mus- 
ace), of which every portion is of some use in building ; the “ Filao,” 
a species of Casuarina ; the Madagascar spice (avintsara mada- 
gascarvensis); and many other large and brilliantly-blossoming trees, 
present a facies which is tropically African or endemic, rather than 
Asiatic. | 
AFRICA. 
Though belonging almost entirely to the equatorial and tropical 
zones, Africa is divided by its desert regions into well-marked 
botanical provinces. That of the north, Morocco, Algeria, and 
Tunis, belongs essentially to the Mediterranean region, Cedrus 
atlantica and Abies numidica on Mount Atlas recalling similar 
associations on the Himalayas, on Lebanon, and in Cyprus. . The 
Sahara is the region of the date-palm; the Soudan, that of the 
oil and sago palms, the baobab, and the silk-cotton; and this 
jungle-region is again separated by the desert region of succulent 
Euphorbia, Aloé, Crassula, and Mesembryanthemum from the 
region of Heaths and Proteacee in the south. 
Morocco. 
Though olives, grapes, figs, almonds, dates, chestnuts, wal- 
nuts, mulberries, and cork are cultivated, the most interesting 
species in Morocco are the “’arar” and the ‘‘argan.” The 
arar” (Callitris quadrivalvis = Thuja articulata, Shaw) is 
known as the “ Atlas Cypress.” It grows 30 feet in height, and 
its sweet-scented wood was the much valued citron-wood of the 
Romans, probably the ‘‘thyine-wood” of the Book of Revelation 
(xviii. 12), and the “alerce” of the roof of the cathedral (originally 
a mosque) at Cordova. This tree yields “‘Gum Sandarach,” for- 
merly used as “pounce.” The “argan” (Argania Sideroxylon ; 
nat. order, Sapotacee), though seldom exceeding 20 or 380 feet in 
height, has a girth of 25 feet, and yields a hard wood. Its fruit 
is eaten by cattle, and crushed for an oil used in cookery. The 
cork oak is still abundant. [Cosson, ‘Compendium Flore 
Atlantice,” Paris, 1881.] 
Atceria, Etc. 
With nearly 5,000,000 acres of forest, about three-fifths under 
State control, Algeria is rich in timber. Pinus halepensis and P. 
