ABYSSINIA 219 



strongly recalling those of Europe are not wanting in 

 favoured positions on the upper levels. Orchard-like 

 woodlands, dotted with candelabra euphorbias, groves 

 of tall deciduous trees, mountains clad with forests 

 of gigantic juniper and podocarpus, and possessing an 

 undergrowth of mediterranean tree-heath, vary the 

 grassy brushes and scrub. The increase of rainfall 

 with elevation determines a corresponding arrangement 

 of the vegetation in belts of altitude. Thus the lower 

 slopes, like the neighbouring lowlands, support bush 

 grass-lands; a taller hillbush follows higher up; on 

 the plateaus and upper slopes the park landscape with 

 its European-looking deciduous trees and pastures 

 becomes predominant : juniper forests are best developed 

 between 6,000 and 9,000 feet, on the slopes of the loftier 

 mountains. 



The country is mainly pastoral, but agriculture is quite 

 possible, is indeed practised everywhere for local require- 

 ments, and with primitive methods. Abyssinia is also 

 the home of the Arabian coffee-tree, and shelters two 

 kinds of wild olive-trees and a great many plants of 

 economic interest. 



The mountains of Yemen in Arabia Felix offer a close 

 analogy with Abyssinia, the ancient Ethiopia, both as 

 regards climate and vegetation, and it is not surprising 

 that the population of the latter was partly derived 

 from the Arabian Sabeans, who brought with them their 

 civilization. Ethiopia was also influenced by Egyptian 

 invasions and became an important centre of culture. 



Abyssino-Eritrean Foot-hills. The land gradually 

 rises from the low and arid Somali plains towards the 

 Ethiopian highlands in a series of broken terraces which 

 form a hilly landscape. This is carried towards the east 

 up to Cape Guardafui by an irregular line of low 



