196 SOME AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANISTS 



own saddle-bags for further specimens. At the 

 close of a heavy day's collecting, the numerous 

 packages had only to be strapped into the plant- 

 presses, to be loaded upon the pack animals in 

 the morning. Travelling all day in the hot Syrian 

 sun, and exposed to the wind, the plants would 

 often dry without requiring transfer. Leaving 

 the muleteers with their pack-animals to accom- 

 plish the stage determined upon by the easiest 

 route, he would sometimes strike off into the 

 mountains or the wilds, covering two or three 

 times the distance traversed by the caravan, and 

 arriving at camp at close of day laden with 

 spoils. The muleteers did not always receive 

 with enthusiasm their rapidly increasing loads. 

 Syrian custom-house officials, having no knowl- 

 edge of herbaria, often looked askance at these 

 huge collections and wished to confiscate them. 

 But with his perfect knowledge of the Arabic 

 language and ways of thinking, and with an 

 innate power of persuasion, he always succeeded 

 in getting his collections safely through. No 

 plant, however spiny and unwieldy, discouraged 

 him; many of his discoveries were among plants 

 of this description, in which the Syrian flora 

 abounds. Huge heads of spiny Onopordon with 

 forbidding leaves; formidably armed species of 

 Astragalus and Acantholimon; cones of pine, 

 cedar and fir; towering huge-leaved mulleins, 



