12 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



and very thinly inhabited. The convents here 

 are extremely numerous. We were informed 

 that the monks compofed at leaft one half of the 

 population. 



In our way to Lagouna we had juft croffed 

 arid mountains, covered with a few fucculent 

 plants, among which we had remarked the 

 Canary leaflefs euphorbia (euphorbia Canarieujis), 

 the euphorbia deruiro'ules, the ciicaTia llama, and 

 the fpecies of Indian fig to which botaniits 

 have given the name of callus opunlla. Thefc 

 vegetables, which live almoft entirely at the cx- 

 penfe of the atmofphere, thrive very well on 

 the flerility of thofe fleep declivities. Having 

 reached the fmall plain in which the town is 

 built, we had the pleafure to fee that it was not 

 gratuitoufly that the vegetable mould of the fur- 

 rounding mountains had been wafhed away by 

 the rains, fincc it had come and fertilized this 

 little corner of land, in which is produced a 

 great deal of wheat, maize, millet, &c. 



I gathered a fpecies of fcriploca, which I had 

 already brought from my voyage up the Levant. 

 I have publiihed an account of it in my fecond 

 ! of the Plants of Syria, under the name 



of per'iploca anguflifol'ta. Citizen Desfontaincs 

 alio brought the iamc fpecies from thecoafr 

 of Barbary. 



AU 



