286 THE GREAT BUSH COUNTRY. 



large trees are to be seen. The traveller may in fact 

 often continue his march for many days in succession, 

 through extensive tracts of country, where nothing 

 larger than the full-sized apple or pear tree of our 

 English orchards are to be met with. This peculiar 

 habit of growth, which causes these dwarf trees to 

 bear a close resemblance to fruit trees, has often been 

 the subject of remark among travellers. Doubtless to 

 a certain extent it is due to the fact that as a rule 

 the trees stand some distance apart, till sometimes they 

 appear to be placed at regular intervals, almost as if 

 planted by human agency. Generally therefore there 

 is plenty of room for a horseman to ride at speed, or 

 even for waggons to pass without any very special 

 difficulty. Dense thorny clumps, wherever any traces 

 of moisture exist, occasionally intermixed with trees 

 of larger growth, are however by no means uncommon 

 in some of these districts ; and where these occur, 

 they usually form thickets so dense, and bear such 

 terrific thorns, as to be of an almost impenetrable 

 character. 



In these dry regions, evergreen forms are of course 

 exceedingly rare, and when seen are mostly of the 

 dwarf-palm tribe, and confined to low-lying districts 

 adjoining the coast line or some great river system; 

 but on the highlands of the interior the trees are almost 

 exclusively deciduous; and in the hot season, as the 



oriental sycamore is a true Jig, and edible fruits are produced from 

 racemes on the back of the larger branches, but not pendant to the 

 twigs as in the case of the garden fig (F. Carica). The " Sycamore" 

 fig is so called from the resemblance of its foliage to that of the 

 Mulberry- and is really a purely greek word SvAK^LOQOg or the 

 Mulberry fig, from ZVHOV " fig" and HOQOV, " a mulberry " (see Encycl. 

 Brit. 9th edit. vol. ix. p. 154 Article "Fig"). 



