EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 
PLANTS. 
Though my refidence in Dar-Fur was fo much protraded, I 
feel myfelf able to furnifh only a very imperfect catalogue of 
its vegetable productions. Thefe are to be fought chiefly in 
the diftrids to the South, where water abounds, and where 
the extreme reftraint under which I found myfelf prevented 
me from feeking them. 
During feven or eight months in the year the whole furface 
of the earth to the North is dried up by the fun, and the 
minute plants which fpring and flourilh during the Harif^, 
are mingled in the general marcefcence, as foon as that feafon 
is paffed. Even the trees, whofe fibres pierce more deeply 
into the fubftance of their parent foil, lofe the diftindive marks 
of their proper foliage, and exhibit to the diftant obferver only 
the fliarp outline of their groffer ramifications. 
Of the trees which fhade our forefts or adorn our gardens 
in Europe, very few exift in Dar-Fur. The charaderiftic 
marks of thofe fpecies which moft abound there, are their fharp 
thorns, and the folid and unperilhable quality of their fub- 
ftance. I. The Tamarind is not very common in the quarter 
I frequented ; but thofe which were vifible to me were of great 
height and bulk, and bore a copious fupply of fruit. 
* Seafon of the rains. 
2. The 
