158 AN ANALYSIS OF THE FLORA OF SINAL 



would be as reasonable to expect that the osher, the salvadora, and the 

 false balm of Gilead would now survive if they were planted out in the 

 south of England. The Irish question alluded to above is difificult of 

 solution — Irish questions usually are — and whether we are helped by an 

 appeal to the Holy Land may be doubted. 



Most of the species here alluded to may be readily found on reference 

 to my Sinai list, where the majority occur, and those plants which are there 

 marked as tropical, and occurring in Palestine, almost invariably occur in 

 the Ghdr. A few others, however, have to be added which do not occur 

 in Sinai. In the following list I will put together the most remarkable 

 tropical species. They belong almost entirely to the Ethiopian region of 

 Wallace, as will be seen from their appended geographical distribution. 

 The list might easily be increased by the addition of several species found 

 in Nubia and Abyssinia, but which range northwards in other parts, as in 

 Persia or Africa, and whose headquarters may be regarded as doubtful. 

 I prefer to call especial attention to those which attain here an unex- 

 pectedly far northern limit. It will be seen that they are, almost without 

 an exception, natives of Nubia. With reference to Midian plants, I 

 shall give a brief analysis of Burton's list. Of 163 species, all except 

 forty-one occur in Sinai, and of these forty-one, twenty-six occur in Pales- 

 tine (nine in the Ghor), and fifteen elsewhere. This illustrates the fact 

 that the Ghor has received Nubian species either by way of Aabia or 

 Sinai and Egypt, for most of these Midianitic non-Sinaitic species are 

 also Nubian, It serves also to show the community of species on opposite 

 sides of the Red Sea. The remaining fifteen Midian plants not found in 

 Sinai or Palestine are chiefly tropical, or more southern than Sinai, 

 with endemic Arabian and a couple of north-eastern Plateaux species. 



