
FLORA OF PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 121 
escape. This was done after having once retreated to the 
nest, and left it again upon a new alae, when she run out 
upon a limb as fap as she could, and jumped to the ground, a 
distance of full four feet, the young still adhering to her. 
I did not, as I should have done, examine the internal 
arrangement of the nest. If she had taken possession of an 
abandoned bird’s nest, she had completed the structure by 
adding to it till the top presented a full convex form. 

THE FLORA OF PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 
BY REV. GEORGE E. POST. 
Paestine and Syria embrace four distinct botanical re- 
gions: 
I. The sea-coast plain and lower slopes of the hills, with 
the deeper valleys, which run far into the heart of- Lebanon 
and the hill country of Galilee. The climate of this region 
is subtropical, and fosters the development of the banana, 
the palm, the sugar-cane and the orange. In this region 
frost is almost unknown, snow is quite rare, being seen only 
once in ten or fifteen years, and the hot sun of summer pour- 
ing on a soil made humid by irrigations, develops a luxu- 
riant vegetable life. : 
II. The mountain sides, from 1000 to 4000 feet above the 
sea, with the valley of Cole Syria, and the plain of the 
Orontes. Here the flora changes. The palm will no longer 
flourish. The banana refuses to fruit. The orange and the 
lemon cease to be productive, and their place is taken by the 
oak and the willow, and the pine and the maple. The olive 
and the mulberry are equally productive in this and the 
foregoing region, but in this form almost the only orchards, 
While on the plain they share the attention of the farmer 
with the before mentioned trees. In this region wheat and 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 16 
