PLATEAUX OR MONTANE FLORA. 153 



great Arabian tableland : Pterocephalus sanctus, Varthamia montana, 

 Echinops glaberrimus, Phlomis aurea, and Teucrium sinaicum, all of 

 which are Plateaux or Montane species ; while Crucianella membranacea, 

 Picris cyanocarpa, and the form Mentha lavandulacea, also believed 

 peculiarly Sinaitic, have recently been discovered in Midian by Captain 

 Burton. 



At the close of the cold period, which favoured the dispersion of these 

 species (and no doubt the formation of some of them), a warm post-glacial 

 time intervened, and gave the majority of the tropical plants of the Desert 

 oases (as of the Ghor and Wady Feirin) the means of spreading through- 

 out their present wide range, while at the same time it committed ravages 

 on whatever northern plants had reached Sinai during the ice age. The 

 dry parched forms which care not where or how they exist, so long as it is 

 a hot desert, need no further means of dispersal than a sandstorm, which 

 will whisk their seed-laden stems to inconceivable distances ; these, which 

 are really the bond-fide inhabitants of the Desert, are easily distributed by 

 the means now existing. There are Desert-birds who follow them, and 

 pick their seeds from place to place with as wide a range often as the 

 plants themselves. Many of these plants, again, as has been mentioned, 

 are extremely sticky, and furnished with hooked hairs, which attach them 

 to the skins of beasts who have to travel far for food. And there are the 

 mighty and dreaded storms of these wildernesses, sufficient in themselves, 

 where the whole surface shifts, to spread identical vegetation from end 

 to end of the sandy or dusty sea. Thus the time allowed for the wide 

 spread of these species will not, perhaps, in view of the many favourable 

 means, appear too scanty. In connection with this it would be necessary 

 to study how far the seeds of these Desert species which reach the 

 Canaries and Cape de Verdes are fit for transmission by the recognised 

 sources by which islands may be stocked.^ 



The present condition of Sinai, that of extreme drought, has no doubt 

 been intensified by the consumption of timber in historic times. The 

 Israelitish hosts and the Egyptian mining companies must have all con- 

 tributed to this unfortunate result, and the charcoal-burning Bedouins are 

 still engaged in carrying out the work of destruction upon the few remain- 

 ing groves of acacia, nubk, and tamarisk in Sinai. 



^ See Wallace's 'Island Life,' pp. 248-252. 



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