1 68 AN ANALYSIS OF THE FLORA OF SINAI. 



CHARACE^. 

 Chara hispida, Linn. 'Ay^in Buweirdeh, in the 'Arabah. 



MUSCI. 



In this group Mr. Oliver has kindly obtained for me the assistance of 

 Mr. William Mitten, A.L.S. 



Mosses were very sparingly met with in Sinai, and only at great 

 elevations. A few occurred on Jebel Musa, from about 6,500 feet to the 

 summit (7,385 feet), under the shady rocks in a gully looking north. At 

 about the same height (6,500 feet) on Jebel Katharina there is a spring, 

 Mayau esh Shunnar (' Fountain of the partridge '), where several patches 

 were obtained, and a few more up the valley from here to the summit, 

 8,536 feet. No others were gathered in Sinai, nor until entering the 

 country of Edom on the east side of the 'Arabah at Wady Abu Kosheibeh 

 (' W. Harun '), and high up Mount Hor. Others were found in Palestine 

 at their cited localities. It is most probable that the Mount Hor district 

 would yield several more forms of musci, especially if visited about one 

 month later in the year than my hurried day there on December 9. 

 Almost immediately afterwards (December 12) heavy rain fell, which 

 would have produced an instantaneous effect on the expectant vegetation, 

 and perhaps most of all on the present group, throughout Sinai. On 

 these collections Mr. Mitten writes as follows : 



' Very little is yet known of the mosses of Palestine. Twelve species 

 were enumerated by Lorentz : " Ueber die Moose die Hr. Ehrenberg in 

 den Jahren 1820-1826 in ^gypten, der Sinai- Halbinsel und Syrien 

 gesammelt. Aus den abhandlungen der Konigl. Akad. der Wissenschaf- 

 ten, Berlin, 1867." Most of these were in a barren state, and belonged 

 to the same species as those collected by Mr. Hart, who gathered twenty- 

 seven and four Hepaticse. The two collections together only raise the 

 number of species to thirty-two, of which several are, from the state ot 

 the specimens, by no means certainly determined. 



1. Anisothecium varium, Hedw. {Dicranum). Gaza, barren. 



2. Grimmia apocarpa, Linn. Jebel Musa, Jebel Katharina, a barren 

 specimen without hair-pointed leaves. 



