region; and plants of the families Boragine and Cruciferæ abound, with species of Astragalus and Mimosa.

"For two months in the year, namely October and November, vegetation is at a stand-still; everything is burnt up, and no new forms appear: but after this period the Nile clouds from the Lebanon in Syria, and reverses in the mountain temperatures to the north and east over Mesopotamia and Adiabene, bring down moderate but refreshing rain. The brown and fallow colour of the soil changes; grasses begin to spread and increase; and, notwithstanding the subsequent frost and storm, some Composite bud, but do not flower. But the succession of vegetation is kept up by those families which have succulent roots, nodes, or bulbs, which preserve moisture so as to ensure life even amidst the most arid soil. Sleeping during the summer heats, they awake to activity with the first rains, and some send forth prematurely their leaves, or even their buds, in October. Among these are a colchicum, a tulip, a crocus, an ixia, and an arum. They are soon, however, enveloped in snow, or blasted by the wintry winds; till early in spring, when the same precocious flowers make their appearance with all that vivid beauty of colour and variety of form which have lent to the poet and the painter their not always fabulous pictures of the East.'

In spring, plants of the families Liliaceæ, Amaryllidaceae, and their allies, are abundant; in summer, woolly, thorny, prickly, and spinous species prevail;

* Ainsworth's Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea, p. 33.

thistles of various genera cover whole districts with their aculeated foliage, and tufted heads of blossom. Aromatic herbs of the Labiate family also characterize the plains, as various species of thyme, marjoram, betony, mint, &c. Two species of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza) are common on cultivated lands.

The kinds of grain and pulse that are fit for the food of man are unusually numerous in these primeval seats of human habitation. Mr. Ainsworth enumerates wheat, barley, guinea-corn (Holchus of two kinds), lentils, chick-peas, two kinds of vetches, peas (Lathyrus sativus), kidney-beans, and medick. Esculent vegetables include most of the pot-herbs used in Europe, several sorts of cucumbers, gourds, melons, pumpkins, and squashes, the ochro (Hibiscus esculentus), the egg-plant or love-apple, and the tomato (Solanum melongena and lycopersicum), and a species of mushroom or truffle, which is so abundant as to constitute the principal food of the Bedouins in spring.*

The fields furnish capers, borage, mallows, sour docks (Rumex acetosa), water-cress, wild-mustard, asparagus, Syrian hart-wort (Tordylium Syriacum), and many other plants useful as salads or condiments. Around Mosul, the gummy roots of a species of Scorzonera afford a plentiful nutriment. The leaves of lettuces, sow-thistles, and thistles are eaten, as are also the bulbs and corms of onions, crocuses, and hyacinths. Tobacco is cultivated, as are also sesame, the castor-oil shrub, hemp, fenugreek, cotton, and

*Burckhardt, Addison, &c.

bastard saffron (Carthamus tinctorius). The leaves of a gigantic Arum are used as paper; henna, with which the Oriental women dye their finger-nails, is obtained from Lawsonia inermis; and gum tragacanth from Astragali, of no fewer than twelve species. The members of the Euphrates Exploring Expedition often used a wild kind of Atriplex as a culinary vegetable: its taste resembled that of spinach, to which it is botanically allied.

Among the fruits of the Assyrian plains are enumerated the olive, the white and black mulberries, the pomegranate, the fig, the cherry, the apricot, several sorts of plums, the peach, the almond, the apple, the pear, the quince, the cornel cherry, the jujube (Rhamnus ziziphus), the walnut, the pistachio, the chestnut, the filbert, the great seeds of Pinus cembra, &c.

The zoology of these regions is rich and extensive, but though its more prominent features have long been familiar to science, its more minute but not less interesting developments have not yet been thoroughly explored, especially in the mountains, the natural history of which is still almost unknown in detail.

Bats are numerous, as they are in all warm countries; the species are small, and the forms not very different from those common to Europe. A hedgehog and a small shrew represent the Insectivora. The greater cats inhabit this region; the majestic lion, that emblem of the Assyrian monarchy, stalks over the midnight plains; the leopard is spread over the mountain region of Taurus, though it seems to

be not abundant; and even the tiger, now rarely seen to the west of the Indus, yet lingers in these lofty fastnesses. Hyrcania, the region lying to the south of the Caspian sea, was anciently famous for this formidable but beautiful animal, and we have modern evidence that it inhabits Mount Ararat. Tournefort states that the sides of this mountain, even almost up to the line of perpetual snow, are infested by tigers, and declares that he saw them within 700 yards of him.* According to the same authority, the young ones are caught in traps by the people around the base of the mountain, to be exhibited in shows of wild beasts throughout Persia. A hunting leopard, which seems to differ from the common maned species, and named Felis venatica, is not uncommon in the lower part of the plains. It climbs trees with facility notwithstanding the imperfect retractility of the claws. Three species of lynx are common, the Spanish lynx (F. pardina), the chaus, and the caracal. The last named is said to be trained for the chase, like the hunting leopard, and is believed to be the species indicated under the term "lynx" by the ancients. It chiefly inhabits woody districts.

The wolf is common in the mountains, but in the plains is replaced by an allied species, the Tartarian wolf. The jackal is abundant, and so is the fox. Like the wolf it is the European species that is met with in Taurus, but on the rivers a distinct species takes its place. The striped hyæna is common in

* Morier mentions among the wild animals of Ararat, bears, small tigers, lynxes, and lions.

all parts, creeping stealthily around the mounds and ruins that are so numerous; and prowling by night around the village burying-grounds for its obscene meal. Several species of bears, both black and brown, are ascribed to the Armenian and Koordish mountains. In the towns great numbers of dogs are seen, as through all Western Asia, of the breed com

monly called the Bazaar-dog; they are protected and fed, sometimes at the public expense, in spite of the Moslem prejudice which counts the touch of a dog a defilement. The Turkoman watch-dog, "a large, rugged, fierce race, equalling the wolf in stature, shaped like the Irish greyhound, and with equally powerful jaws,"-with erect ears, bushy tail, and