AND LOWER EGYPT. 269 



day the agriculture of her southern departments 

 with it, and add this branch of commerce to all 

 those with which she is already enriched. 



In truth, this is one of the plants the most grate- 

 ful to both the sight and the smell. The gently 

 deepish colour of its bark, the light green of its 

 foliage, the softened mixture of white and yellow, 

 with which the flowers, collected into long clusters 

 like the lilach, are coloured, the red tint of the ra- 

 mifications which support them, form a combina- 

 tion of the most agreeable effect. These flowers, 

 whose shades are so delicate, diffuse around the 

 sweetest odours, and embalm the gardens and the 

 apartments which they embellish. They accord- 

 ingly form the usual nosegay of beauty. The wo- 

 men, ornament of the prisons of jealousy, whereas 

 they might be that of a whole country, take plea- 

 sure to deck themselves with these beautiful clus- 

 ters of fragrance, to adorn their apartments with 

 them, to carry them to the bath, to hold them in 

 their hand, in a word, to perfume their bosom with 

 them. They attach to this possession, which the 

 mildness of the climate, and the facility of culture, 

 seldom refuse them, a value so high, that they 

 would willingly appropriate it exclusively to them- 

 selves, and that they suffer with impatience Chris- 

 tian women and Jewesses to partake of it with 

 them. The victim of tyranny, beauty, in those 



countries, 



