FLORA OF ADEN. 
53 
render the scenery most striking, and in the moonlight awfully grand, 
most espeoiallv in twilight or sunset, when the exquisitely delicate 
colouring of the sky and the few scattered clouds that speckle it, con- 
trast singularly with the wild features of the land. In the gravelly 
hollows a°very few plants are seen, woefully wide apart, and never in 
sufficient quantity to give a verdant hue to even an acre of ground at 
this season ; but I am told that grass appears in spring. The most con- 
spicuous plant is a bushy green Carpark (Caper) and next a large Reseda 
(Mignonette), the commonest plant in the island : next comes a large 
herbaceous Capparis with bright golden flowers, and then rusty-looking 
Acacia- bushes, and some odd-looking Euphorbias. The shores are bold 
and rocky, yielding rock-oysters, but destitute of Algse. 
“On Sunday morning we started [from Steamer Point] very early 
for the cantonment or town, four miles off. The Governor-General, 
Courtenay, Captain Haines, and myself, were all the party. Our con- 
veyance was a pretty French barouche with four horses ; our road, an 
excellent one, wound along the beach opposite the Arab shore. At the 
neck of the peninsula is a steep hill leading to the “ Gorge,” which 
connects the valley of Aden with the rest of the peninsula ; and here we 
left the carriage for Arab horses, all except the Governor, who had a 
Palanquin, while the carriage was dragged up after us through the 
fortified pass. At this place we ascended a hill to survey the fortifica- 
tions and obtain a view of the disputed points and modes of attack and 
defence. The scene was very grand, overlooking the flat sandy isthmus, 
with its Turkish and Arab forts and walls, similar to that neck connect- 
ing Gibraltar with the mainland of Spain. Below lay a village close to 
the neck, on a salt plain studded with houses belonging to the Hindoos 
employed in the fortifications, who spotted the plain with their white 
dresses. ... Looking north the eye detects the long sandy waste of the 
isthmus, with the sea on either hand, succeeded by a belt of green 
woods along the Arab coast ; and in the distance a long yellow desert, 
backed by ranges of high mountains said to abound in fertile valleys 
blooming with the Rose of Shiraz, the Apple, Vine, and Apricot, 
Melon, and all the delicious flowers and fruits of Persia and Araby the 
blest. What a contrast to our present site ! And it is from these 
distant hills that Aden is constantly supplied with vegetables, brought 
for sale by the Arabs. To the right of this position is the great black 
gulph in which Aden is built, a sort of valley of Acheron, unblest by 
water or any verdure, sprinkled with the white hovels of the natives, 
and scarcely better, the long cantonments of the troops. On both 
sides are valleys, long steep naked gorges which run up the flanks of 
