EGYPTIAN SUDAN 



215 



shows an improvement on the semi-desert margin, and 

 marks a step towards the more prosperous savana con- 

 ditions, for the rainy season may be fairly depended upon. 

 The vegetation is uniform, and characterized throughout 

 by a large development of thornwoods (cf. p. 213). 



In the north one still meets with large stretches of 

 desert land, especially on the plateaus, while in the 

 broad depressions, forests of doum -palms, gummy aderas, 



FIG. 82. In the drier Scrubland of the Egyptian Sudan. 



balanites, &c., predominate with grassy tracts ; but 

 thickets of thorny Nubian and other acacias, and 

 scrub, 3 to 5 feet high, of deciduous, tiny-leaved bushes, 

 become a distinctive feature. As it penetrates farther 

 south, the scrubby and thorny vegetation grows more 

 continuous, closer, and taller. The landscape is now a 

 mosaic of thin, shadeless woods of gnarled acacias which 

 expand in umbrella shapes, and in many ways recall our 



