THE ROSE OF JERICHO. 149 



upper portion into gnarled branches, terminated each by a cluster of 

 green, cylindrical and leafless twigs, which fall during winter. Else- 

 where rise the tall trunks of the doum-palms, either isolated or 

 assembled in scanty clumps, under which the traveller obtains with 

 difficulty a modicum of shade, but which are otherwise of no value 

 to him. 



In districts where the surface is more broken up, notably in 

 Palestine, on the banks of the Jordan and the Dead Sea ; in the 

 Sinaitic Peninsula of Arabia ; in the Nubian deserts of Naga, 

 Aredah, and Bahiouda ; finally, even in the Sahara, in the " Desert 

 of Erosion," and the table-land region, vegetable life becomes more 

 abundant and more varied, though still but of mediocre interest. 

 However, a curious arbustus, the Limioniastrum Guyonianum, shows 

 itself very frequently in these damp localities, where it attains some- 

 times the dimensions of a tree. Its attenuated leaves are covered 

 with saline efflorescence, and its particles of rosy flowers relieve the 

 monotony of the wilderness. In the permanent salt marshes, or 

 chotts, some of the plants are analagous to those formed in the 

 bogs of Languedoc. 



Among the plants of the Desert I must not forget the rose of 

 Jericho (Anastatica hierochuntica),* an annual which contracts 

 itself into a ball, and, blown about by the breeze, seems a dead and 

 withered mass of twigs. But plunge it into water, and it expands, 

 regains the bloom of life, affording a remarkable example of what is 

 called " revivification." The fable respecting it is, that the first time 

 it ever bloomed was on the eve of the Nativity, and that its flower 

 remained open until Easter. 



Several other vegetable species grow on the table-lands of the 

 Algerine Sahara, which are found elsewhere under similar conditions 

 of soil and climate. They are thorny shrubs and underwood, almost 

 wholly belonging to the family of Salsolacese, or littoral plants, which 

 only thrive on ground impregnated with salt ; there are also sub-fru- 

 tescent plants, partly dried up by the sun. In some places the 



* Order, Cruciferx. 



