FAUNA AND FLORA OF SINAI, PETRA, AND WADY 'ARABAH. 51 



to be identified with the ' apples of the Dead Sea.' The drawing of these 

 ' trees that beren fulle faire apples, and faire of colour to beholde,' by- 

 Sir John Maundeville, is by no means unlike the Osher. If the early 

 traveller's figure stands for any real thing, it is probably for this bush, 

 which here attains a remarkable size. Of it the writers already quoted 

 say : ' We were here (Gh6r es Safieh) surprised to see for the first time 

 the Osher plant, grown to the stature of a tree, its trunk measuring in 

 many instances 2 feet or more in circumference, and the boughs at least 

 15 feet in length, a size which far exceeded any we saw in Nubia; the 

 fruit also was larger and in greater quantity.' This remark is interesting 

 in connection with Captain Burton's, that the Osher in South Midian is 

 'a tree, not a shrub' (' Land of Midian,' ii. 206), as though the plant was 

 more at home in the Eastern continent. The Castor-oil {Ricinus com.' 

 munis) is also very conspicuous and large (20 to 25 feet), chiefly in the same 

 localities as the Osher. Other bushes are the leafless Leptadenia pyro- 

 technica, and the poplar, Populus euphratica. All these were seen in the 

 Ghor el Feifeh also. A tree of the latter, about 50 feet high, near the 

 Dead Sea, is, I think, the largest tree in the whole Gh6r. Oleanders 

 and Osiers are confined to the embouchures of the stream from the 

 mountains or farther up. 



As we approach the Dead Sea, occasional swamps produced jungles of 

 various late grasses, chiefly Arundo Phragmites [P. gigantea, /. Gay.); 

 Erianthus Ravennce, P. de B., and Imperata cylindrica, P. de B., mixed 

 with several Cyperacese, of which the most interesting were C. eleusinoides, 

 Kunth., and sparingly, I believe, C. papyrus, Linn. Salter patches are 

 given up to Juncus maritimus and Eragrostis cynosuroides, Retz. The 

 former (var. arabica) was from 4 to 7 feet high. Tamarisks, Susedas, 

 Salsolas, Salicornia, and Atriplices are the last to fail. Tamarisk, 

 Salicornia herbacea, and Ruppia not in flower, probably R. spiralis, 

 EHer., were the very last ; the former all along the inner margin, the 

 latter two where the mud of the sea is in union with that of the Tufileh 

 estuary. The latter two encroach downwards upon the forbidden area 

 here, from salt swamps to those which are too salt, as they do upwards in 

 our own country, from salt swamps up fresher estuaries until they meet 

 those which are too fresh. 



A brief space, 50 yards or more, varying with the slope and the 



7—2 



