FAUNA AND FLORA OF SINAI, PETRA, AND WADY 'ARABAH. 43 



noteworthy. A very fragrant savory, Satureia cuneifolia, Ten., and our 

 early acquaintance the 'sekkaran,' Hyoscyamus mutims, Linn., occurred. 



At the head of this valley Jtmiperus phcenicea was found to be the 

 tree visible from the 'Arabah on the white chalky plateau of Edom, and 

 growing abundantly. Burton found this tree luxuriant and abundant at 

 considerable heights in Midian three degrees farther south. 



In this widy I gathered maiden-hair fern, the first I had seen 

 since leaving Jebel Mlisa. Caper {Capparis spinosa), Lycium arabicum, 

 and Boerhavia verticillata also occurred. Bushes of nubk were sometimes 

 canopied with this latter trailing plant, with its pretty panicles of small 

 blueish flowers. 



The Bedawin told me that with the juniper trees on Edom occur also 

 ' balut,' Quercus cocci/era, Linn., and 'arour,' a thorn with a small sweet 

 fruit. This was, I believe, Rhus oxyacanthoides, Linn., which the above- 

 mentioned traveller found abundantly in Midian. I met it subsequently 

 in the Gh6r. 



In Wddy Ghuweir I captured the first Batrachian I met with, Bufo 

 viridis, Linn.; running water, the rarest and pleasantest of sights in these 

 regions, was the source of this increased variety of life. 



At the 'Arabah, abreast of the above valley, I examined some large 

 bushes of Calligonum comosmn, L. Her., a desolate, leafless, whitened, 

 scrubby species which often grows in shifting sand. Its roots are 

 beautifully adapted to secure its position. These are woody, springy, and 

 tough, very different from the brittle branches, and about a quarter of 

 an inch in diameter. Some of these are seven or eight yards in length, 

 perhaps much more, and beset with knobs at intervals, which are 

 serviceable in giving them a better grip. These excrescences may have 

 been due to insects, for I afterwards noticed that this plant was much 

 subject to galls ; but whatever their origin, they served the purpose of the 

 flukes of an anchor to hold the bush in a sea of shifting sand. 



There appears to be a great variety of gall-producing insects in the 

 desert. Almost every woody species is liable to knobs and swellings. 

 One of the most curious of these appendages was that frequently attached 

 to the common Salsola — a shapely little spurred and coloured excrescence 

 like a solidified flower of one of our commoner wild orchids. 



A minute cruciferous annual, half an inch high, leafless and with a 



6—2 



