S8 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 



Of Jebel Usdutn I have given a description to Professor Hull, which has 

 appeared in his account of our expedition. It proved, as it looked, to be 

 of little botanical interest, and I should not have climbed it had I not seen 

 it stated in several places that it was inaccessible. The plants found on 

 its upper portion, 650 feet above the Dead Sea, were very few, the whole 

 being a bare flat with a slight central ridge of barren marl — the cap of 

 the central core of rock-salt. A couple of solitary tamarisks occurred and 

 several Salsolaceae. The latter were Nocea spinosissima, Moq.; Atriplex 

 alexandrina, Boiss.; Salsola rigida, Pall., var. tenuifolia.; S. tetragona, 

 Del.; S. fcetida, Del., and iS*. inermis, Forsk. The ' mountain of salt ' is, 

 in fact, well characterized by this order. Several of the above are 

 additions to the flora of Palestine. On the western slope a few desert 

 species of the ordinary and familiar types were collected, and these 

 gradually increased to the base at the Mahauwat Wady, whose flora has 

 been already the subject of a special paper by Mr. Lowne. This writer 

 gathered here, and in the neighbouring Wady of Zuweirah, eighty-two 

 flowering species, chiefly of the desert sorts. These are all, or almost all, 

 either Sinaitic or occur in the Widy 'Arabah. 



Leptadenia pyrotechnica, Forsk., and Ochradenus baccatus, Del., grow to 

 a large size here. The latter was about 1 5 feet high, close to the Dead 

 Sea, at the confluence of these two widies. Zilla myagroides, Forsk., was 

 here in flower, bearing a pretty little blossom like our Cakile maritima. 



During the ascent of Wady Zuweirah to the plain of South Judaea 

 the following fresh species were collected : Notoceras canariense, R. Br.; 

 Enarthrocarpus lyratus, D.C.; ZoUikoferia,sp. (?) (Z. stenocephala, Boiss. ?); 

 Lithospermitm tenuiflorum., Linn.; Heliotropium rotundifolium, Sieb. ; 

 Ballota tindulata, Fres. ; Amelia linearifolia, D.C., and Plantago 

 Loefflingii, Linn. A large bulb, Urginea Scilla, Stein. (^), now only in 

 leaf, marks well the transition stage from the Gh6r flora to that of the 

 Judsean wilderness. Desert species, as Fagonia, Zygophylla, Retama, 

 Acacise, Resedaces, Cucumis, Microrhynchus, Daemia, ^Erua, Forskahlea, 

 and others were here for the most part taken leave of. These ascended 

 perhaps a third part of the climb, several ceasing at about the old 

 Saracenic Fort. Upwards, and on the Judaean plain, a great change takes 

 place. We found ourselves ere long on rich land arousing itself to a 

 spring growth, although the most inclement season was not yet reached. 



