* 
290 ON THE FLORA OF MOAB. 
of myriads of larks. This wormwood in turn gives way to patches of 
sandy soil, and a white lichen, as the low range of desert hills whieh 
bounds the plain is approached. i 
No trees, not even any shrubs or bushes exist over the whole of this 
great plateau, except on the summit of Jebel Attarus. i some 
miles is studded with old trees, after the fashion of a scattered 
There 
bordered and patterned with the brilliant blue of the lovely Veronica 
dd that the dull 
species of this order, collected in the country, twenty-five were in flower 
temperate zone. On the southern side of the Arnon Valley the almond tree 
was in full flower, and ‘the white asphodel (4. ramosus) bursting into 
bloom on the 15th of February, whilst a little golden Gagea studded the 
slopes. Clumps of oleander grew about the stream, not yet showing 
signs of flower. I saw it in its glory a month later, fringing the shores 
of Gennesaret. 
On the northern and more sunny side of Arnon the flowers were 
much more humerous. ere we first met with four plants which soon 
v. ole of Palestine, and of whic 
covering the basaltic boulders of Galilee on the descent from Tabor to 
Tiberias ; Astragalus hamosus, or a species very nearly allied to it ; a: 
Horminum, with a tuft of bright lilac bracts crowning its spike, an 
Lathyrus Cicera, rather pinker and much larger flowered than our Lathyrus 
Numbers of little erucifers and the diminutive Ceratocephalus 
aba verna grew abundantly at Dibon. the 
much for Arnon. A fortnight later we dropped. down into 
