CH. T. AIN BEIDA. 117 



fertile, the stranger may travel long distances without 

 perceiving a trace of human habitations, or any other 

 buildings than the zaouias and kouhbas, which are scat- 

 tered over the country at unequal intervals. By these 

 names are designated the tombs of persons, who, when 

 alive, attained a reputation for sanctity, differing only in 

 the rank which they hold in local estimation. The per- 

 son over whose remains a zaouia is constructed may be 

 regarded as the patron saint of the tribe or province, 

 while the Jcoubba marks the resting-place of a saint of less 

 renown. 



We soon left behind us the irrigated ground, and 

 entered on a barren region, less absolutely sterile than that 

 of the preceding day's journey, and having a more varied 

 vegetation. Blocks of black volcanic rock were more 

 frequent, and of larger size, indicating that we were nearer 

 to the place of their origin, wherever that may be. In 

 some spots Arietnisia Herba alba was the predominant^ 

 plant, but we met several new species not before seen. 

 One of the most curious of these is a white-flowered Picris 

 (P. albida), afterwards seen at intervals in the low 

 country, whose ligules wither so rapidly that we failed to 

 secm'e any satisfactory specimens. Without becoming 

 hilly, the surface lay in slight heaving undulations, the 

 upward slope being always longest towards the east ; and 

 the same remark applied throughout the day's ride.. In 

 about three hours we reached Ain Beida, where a copious 

 spring of excellent water fertilises a tract of about a square 

 mile. We turned aside from our track to lialt beneath a 

 very fine pistachio tree,' fully forty feet high and two feet 

 in diameter. The sim was very hot, though the temper- 

 ature of the air was not more than 80° Fahr., and we were 

 assured that our halting place for the night was only four 

 hours' distant ; and so it happened that between luncheon, 



' This was apparently the Pistaeia atlantica. The true Pistachid 

 tree (P. rera of LinnsEus), so extensively cultivated in the wanner parts 

 of the Mediterranean region, was not seen by us in Marocco. 



