422 CINNAMON TREES IN PURE SAND. 



cinnamon tree, however, requires to be abundantly 

 watered, especially where the rainfall is scanty, and 

 probably at Colombo the roots reach water-bearing 

 soil into which organic matters have been washed 

 down by the rains. 



Beyond the limits of the oases, the vegetation of the 

 desert itself is, of course, always scanty ; and over con- 

 siderable areas, already referred to, as the " Sahara- 

 El- Falat " for instance, it may even be said to become 

 almost extinct but alternating among stretches of the 

 most sterile character, grassy and even bushy tracts 

 are here and there met with. 



The dwarf trees and shrubs found in these bushy 

 portions, are almost always of the acacia and mimosa 

 family, and a good many varieties are covered during 

 the rains with beautiful and deliciously scented flowers, 

 as Pringle, the Poet of South Africa, reminds us, in 

 these charming lines 



" Bare are the sands, yet smiling there, 

 Th' Acacia waves her yellow hair, 

 Lovely and sweet, nor loved the less, 

 For flowering in the wilderness."* 



These dwarf trees are to be seen along the dry beds 

 of torrents, or wherever there is any dampness in the 

 subsoil : they are also apt to collect in dense thorny 

 thickets on precipitous places among hills and other 

 broken ground, especially where the land is scored 

 by dry water courses, and though the presence of 

 water may not be apparent at these places, still it is 

 probable, and indeed practically certain, that these trees 

 are indicative of localities where it would be found, 



* Poems by Thomas Pringle. Edited by Leitch Richie, and Publ. 

 London, 1839, I vol., 8vo., with a sketch of the Poet's life. 



