The Romance of Plant Life

s, etc.-Australian half-deserts-Explorers' fate-Queen Hatasu and the first geographical expedition recorded-Frankincense, myrrh, gums, and odorous resins-M

not seem at first sight to

Epistles, Persia, Arabia, Palestine, and Carthage, surely the countries which have had such splendid histories deserve a chapter to themselves. What achievements

is the home of the camel, ass, horse, donkey, not to speak of th

man. The Olive, Orange, Fig, Roses, and many perfumes and spice-trees, are native

als also are dependent on the plant world, it is th

ly regulated by the character of the clim

. When, as has happened in many of these famous lands, the forests have been cut down and the aqueducts have been neglected, they become arid, dry, and almost useless. But

imates and of the scrub which cove

trying to occ

e Libyan Desert is at first unbroken. But here and there the thorny trees of the "Seyal". Acacia show the beginnings of a scrub region. Much further to t

taller, closer together, and climbing plants and undergrowth become more frequent. Still furthe

to

ves in the So

chest in big game, is the intermediate zone bet

and alternate with stretches of grass or what looks like grass. Near the desert one finds pioneer acacias dotted singly h

iera, and Greece must no doubt at one time have supported a scrub vegetation. At present it is difficult to tell what this was. There is a sort of scru

cannot tell what sort of country revealed itself to the first Ph?nicians when they landed in Southern Spain to t

or cultivated the soil. Possibly Spain and Sicily in those early days were not unli

n idea of how this scrub

horbias are little green uninteresting weeds, but here some of them are twenty to thirty feet high, with many slender whip-like branches, but no leaves. Others are exactly like Cactus, and take on weird, cand

vered with thorns or protected by r

ittle tufts of grass or sedge, but these are so far ap

nally a tiny gazelle, the "paa," with large ears, springs out of the thorns and vanishes down the path. I saw footprints of giraffes, and came acr

Water probably exists under the stony grit soil, but at present one has to be contented with that found in the stagnant poo

y and arid region. Their roots go down to twenty feet

tly gummed up, and there is no loss of precious water thereby. This gum will also prevent or discourage burrowing and boring insects from getting in; they would, if they tried to do so, become

ubs and half-deserts, very severe. In Egypt it is said that the who

es. In East Africa man has not yet interfered, and the plants probably get the better of the animals. In such places lions, leopards, and hyenas are common. It

igorous thickets and undergrowth will spring up when the soil is improved in this way. Such a vigorous growth of plants will be better able to resist the long eight or nine months' drought, and so h

ight, so that there is no danger of the strong light injuring them. Also in Australia is the Mallee Scrub, covering thousands of square miles between the Murray River and the coast. It consists of bushy Eucalyptus, six to twelve feet high. Its monotonous appearance when seen from a small hill is very striking.[48] "Below lies an endle

e bones of many gallant and persevering explorers. Nor is the East African thorn-tree desert

Queen Hatar

n Somaliland), and incense trees are being carried on board. Notice

of Punt, which was probably Somaliland. The natives lived in round huts built on piles like the ancient lake dwellings. The object of the journey was to obtain incense. No less than thirty-one incense-bushes were dug up with as much earth as possible about their roots, and carried to the ships, where they were placed upright on the deck and covered with an awning to keep off the sun's rays. W

coloured bas-reliefs in the temple

oswellia. In February and March, cuts are made by the incense gatherers in the bark of the trees. Tears of resin soon appear and become dried by the sun over the wound. The best kinds still come from Saba, in Arabia, where the Romans obtained it in the time of Virgil. Besides Olibanum, frankincense contains Galbanum (Ferula galbaniflua) an

ce of a great crime was banished to Arabia and became the tree which bears her name. The myrrh of the Sac

n the Chapel Royal, London, on the feast of the Epiphany, and, strange though i

ert regions. Cleopatra obtained plants from Jericho for her garden at H

for the essence is wor

s a valuable gum resin, which is much used in perfumery (Pastinaca op

incisions being made in the bark, so that the brownish or yellowish viscid juice exudes and hardens on the wound. Ladanum is a varnish or gluey coating found on the leaves of Cistus creticus, which grows in Crete. In old times the glue was collected from the beards of the goats which had

f these half-desert plants, it is full of an acrid, ethereal, odorous substance. On a calm, hot summer's day, this material exudes from the leaves and surrounds th

is a display of flames and smoke with little explosions, followed by a strong smell. The plant may be injur

ranges and Lemons, of Figs and Vines, of Almonds and Raisin

are crushed in circular stone troughs with a perpendicular millstone. The paste is then pressed in bags and afterwards clarified by passing throu

the orange make a most beautiful contrast, but the dry, thirsty soil, and the careful way in which the water is regulated and supplie

assical times it was sacred to Venus, but the victors in the Olympian games were also crowned with myrtle, and the magistrates at Athens had the same privile

flowers are used, such as the Garden Violet, Mignonette (a native of Egypt imported in 1752), Lily of the Valley, Tuberose, "the sweetest flower for scent that grows," Jonquil (Nar

ted. Solomon had his rose-gardens at Jericho. Queen Cleopatra spent some ￡400 on roses in one day, and Nero

and walls of the Mosque of Omar were washed and purified with rosewater. That stout warrior Thibault IV, Count de Brie et de Champagne, brought back roses from Damascus on his return t

and she received as her reward a pearl necklace worth 30,000 rupees. The price of otto of roses seems to hav

eers of France had to present bouquets and

d roses are grown on two and a half acres. The season is from April to May. Women gather from twenty to twenty-five pounds daily, and obtain from t

hese are on light soil, fully exposed to the sun, at over 1200 feet above the sea. It is interesting to find that the pure mou

1656. Cannes, Grasse, Antibes, and Nice are the places where it is most cultivated. Its flowers appear from July to November. An old tree may yield as much as twelve to twenty po

r a temperature of three or four degrees

with fat or grease; the petals are placed on the grease and replaced by fresh petals every twenty

chly produced depends upon the strong sunlight and pure air. It is very useful, partly because it attracts those useful insects which carry the pollen, but also because such odours ar

in springs, these half-deserts were exceedingly prosperous; they were full of vigorous intellectual life, and of strong, hardy, and ind

ism produced by his religion, and the slavery which is a necessary part thereof, have destroyed the peopl

t Africa, and South-west Cape Colony, may have as rich a history as Greece,