BOTANY. 409 



ture, such as the Corchorus, the StBlanthus, the leaves of 

 which, when boiled, have a pleasing acid taste ; and the 

 celebrated Colocasia (a species of Arum), which flourishes 

 abundantly in all marshy places. 



Plants- Of these the variety is not great ; and they are 

 chiefly of the saline or succulent kind. The sandy plains 

 produce the same genera as Northern Africa, which serve 

 as agreeable objects to the traveller, as well as to alleviate 

 the thirst of the camel in the weary journeys of the cara- 

 vans through the desert. Different kinds of Zygophyllum, 

 Hedysarum, Colutea, Mesembryanthemum, Salsola, with 

 other prickly herbs and shrubs, are browsed by these ani- 

 mals, which are content with the driest and hardest fare. 

 The ass eats a species of the Scorzonera, so rough and 

 bitter that even the camel refuses to taste it. There is 

 a species of Mesembryanthemum, the grain of which the 

 Bedouins prepare into a sort of bread, and eat it as readily 

 as if it were made of wheat. It is in the wadis and recesses 

 of the mountains that Arabian botany ought to be studied ; 

 and here, as Burckhardt remarks of the Sinai group, the 

 naturalist would find a rich harvest. He mentions in 

 particular the tattar (Ocymum tatarhendi), as affording 

 the best possible food for sheep ; and the nooman (the 

 Euphorbia retusa of Forskal), bearing a pretty red flower, 

 which abounds in these valleys, and is seen among the 

 cliffs of the most barren granitic rocks. The monks of 

 St Catherine collect various herbs when in full bloom, 

 which they dry and send to their archbishop, who distri- 

 butes them to his friends and dependants, as they are sup- 

 posed to possess many virtues conducive to health. This 

 barren peninsula is the favourite soil of the rose of Jericho, 

 an Apocynum or dog's-bane, the Absinthium santonicum 

 judaicum, the Asteriscus trianthophorus, Astragalus 

 perennis, and several others, which Shaw has enumerated 

 in his " Specimen Phytographiae." The Ocymum, the 

 most beautiful species of the Basilic, is much valued for 

 its perfume, as are also an Inula, a sort of elecampane ; 

 a Cacalia from the heart of Africa ; and the genus Dian- 

 thera, of which Forskal discovered eight species. The 

 same traveller gave the name of Moscharia to a plant of 

 a new genus, on account of its musky smell. Among the 

 odoriferous herbs of which he collected specimens were 

 lavender, marjoram, lilies, and pinks. The most fragrant, 

 as well as the most remarkable for their fine flowers, were 

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