2 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 



To him the determination of my species of birds, as well as of land and 

 freshwater molluscs, is almost entirely due, and his recent work on the 

 ' Fauna and Flora of Western Palestine ' has been continually consulted 

 in preparing the present account. 



To Dr. Gunther, F.R.S., and to Messrs. Waterhouse and Thomas, of 

 the British Museum, my thanks are due for the naming of other smaller 

 collections of mammals, reptiles, and beetles. Mr. Edgar Smith, of the 

 conchological department, has also been good enough to render me as 

 much assistance as his duties would permit, in searching for information 

 on the mollusc-fauna of the Red Sea. 



To Mons. Edmond Boissier, the eminent Swiss botanist and author of 

 the invaluable ' Flora Orientalis,', I desire to tender my warmest acknow- 

 ledgments. He has very kindly determined for me some of the more 

 intricate genera, which his unrivalled knowledge and extensive Oriental 

 herbarium enable him to deal with satisfactorily. Of Mons. Boissier's 

 ' Flora Orientalis ' I have constantly availed myself in dealing with the 

 flora of Sinai. Botanists whose inclinations turn, as mine do, to the geo- 

 graphical distribution of plants, will find this work, which is now complete, 

 a perfect storehouse of information. 



Reference must here be made to the 'Ordnance Survey of Sinai,' 

 published in 1869, where much valuable information on the physical 

 features and natural history of the Peninsula will be found, especially in 

 the appendices of Mr. Wyatt. An interesting paper by Mr. Lowne, on 

 the Flora of Sinai, in the Journal of the Linnean Society for 1865, may 

 also be referred to ; his nomenclature, however, differs widely from that 

 at present adopted. There is little other botanical literature available ; 

 Decaisne's ' Florula Sinaica,' published in the Annales des Sciences 

 Naturelles in 1836, in which many new species are described, is difficult 

 to obtain separately ; it is, however, very valuable, but the collections of 

 Schimper and others, distributed throughout the herbaria of Europe, and 

 duly recorded in Boissier's ' Flora Orientalis,' have nearly doubled 

 Decaisne's original total.* 



I must not omit to acknowledge the judicious and kindly guidance by 

 which (with the assistance of our most efficient interpreter and conductor, 



* Since writing the above, Europe has lost one of her most famous botanists. Mons. 

 Boissier died in September, 1885. 



