NOTES ON EGYPTIAN VEGETATION. 
241 
villa. Every house in this suburb has a garden more or less beautiful, 
and flowers are evidently very highly appreciated here. 
The Roses were particularly beautiful at the time of our visit, also 
Carnations. Oranges, Palms, &c., were in profusion, and many of the 
same kinds of plants as I have already enumerated. 
Our trip up the Nile, which we ascended for upwards of 750 miles, was 
extremely interesting from a sight-seeing point of view, but one began to 
tire of the monotony of the ever-present Date Palm after the first week 
or two, and that notwithstanding the fact that the further we went, the 
finer the trees were. As we got into Nubia we met with the celebrated 
Doum Palm (Hyph^ene thebaica), which became more common the 
further south we went. This is a fan-leaved Palm, and I believe the 
only genus of Palms with a branching habit. It attains a considerable 
size, and sometimes the branching is repeated three or four times. Its 
large nuts are used for food, whilst ornaments and objects of various kinds 
are made from the hard rind. 
The Castor Oil plant grows here to a great height, frequently 20 ft. or 
more, and branching. A very common tree, or large bush, is the Acacia 
nilotica, popularly known as the " Sunt." 
Although the Nile vegetation was comparatively monotonous, two 
matters interested me very much. 
1. The method of irrigation. 
2. The manure used. 
As both these are connected with the cultivation of crops, a few 
remarks may not be considered out of place. 
The necessity for irrigation depends, of course, on the relative height 
of the soil above the Nile surface. There are many localities which 
retain sufficient moisture after the subsidence of the water to admit of 
the crops ripening without additional irrigation ; but where this is 
necessary it is effected by one of two methods — either by means of water- 
wheels, called " Sakiyeh," worked usually by cattle or buffaloes, but 
sometimes by camels or donkeys (these wheels are 20 to 30 ft. in 
diameter, fitted with buckets or scoops of wood or clay, like a dredging 
machine) ; the other method being an apparatus worked by one person 
only. This more nearly resembles that of an ordinary well, and is 
called a " Shaduf," the water being raised in shallow broad buckets re- 
sembling baskets. We frequently saw three or four of these arranged one 
above the other where it was desired to raise the water to a considerable 
height. The Fellahin who work these are fine-looking men as a rule, 
with scarcely any covering besides a loin cloth, and some even dispensing 
with that garment. 
Manure. — The chief fertiliser is of course the river itself, which 
brings down much soil every season. The composition of the deposit 
is said to consist of 18 per cent, of carbonate of lime, 9 per cent, quartz, 
silica, &c., 6 per cent, oxide of iron, 4 per cent, carbonate of magnesia, 
and the remaining 63 per cent, water and sand. 
The dung of the domestic animals being used for fuel (as wood is so 
scarce), pigeon dung is the only manure available for agricultural pur- 
poses, and accordingly the number and size of the pigeon-houses are very 
great. Immense flocks of these birds are seen everywhere in the country 
