THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. 151 



varied here and there by Palm-trees, single or in clumps. 

 " Uninteresting " is the word which best characterizes the 

 greater part of this river voyage. We are disappointed too 

 that we can see nothing exactly answering to the tall, reed- 

 like stems of the Papyrus, such as those we have seen in 

 hothouses at home, with bunches of light thread-like leaves 

 growing at the top ; and we give up the thought at last, on 

 making the discovery that now it only grows above the cata- 

 racts, nearly five hundred miles up the river. Now and 

 then indeed our hearts leap up at the sight of the beautiful 

 white blossoms of the Arum (Calla JEtkiopica) growing 

 wild on the islands of the Nile, the very same as those we 

 prized in our drawing-room window at home ; and here and 

 there, as we pass these islands, we see that elegant shrub 

 the Tamarisk, which we remember in English gardens as 

 an interesting exotic ; but here, in its native land, it has a 

 beauty we never saw in it before, and in its " long, brown, 

 slender stems, and graceful plumes of faintly blushing 

 blossoms," we recognize the truth of Lindley's description. 

 The eye however is refreshed for a mile or two before 

 reaching Cairo, by a shady avenue of Sycamores on one side 

 of the river; but as we approach the town, the banks are so 

 covered with counting-houses and custom-houses, gardens 



