Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/74

48 At no time during our wanderings through the Sinaitic peninsula was I so much struck by the beauty of this desert flora as when we commenced our march down the Wâdy Berráh on this Sabbath morning. The whole surface of the nearly level plain was gay with its peculiar dwarf vegetation, on which the dewdrops were sparkling like diamonds in the clear sunshine. The plants seemed to arrange themselves in little natural gardens, or individual bunches with gravelly spaces between; each plant separately set in its place shows itself to the best advantage, and the eye wanders over a tract bedecked with leaves and flowers of various hues, from tints of green through those of yellow and pink to red. Amongst these the Santolina fragrantissima, of a delicate bluish green, and the Zygophyllum simplex, with its silky bracts of yellow, pink, and reddish hues, form the most abundant kinds. The latter plant, somewhat resembling in general appearance and size the heather of the British hills, is much more beautiful from the variety of colouring of the blossom. As the eye rests with pleasure on the desert garden, and beholds with wonder the decorative powers and processes of nature, one forgets for the time the absence of the green grass, of the daisy, the cowslip, the primrose, and other field flowers of home—and so the beholder goes on his way rejoicing.

On descending from the narrow gorge of the Wâdy Berráh, the range of J. Katarina rises grandly in front. This mountain out-tops the neighbouring heights—a giant amongst giants ; and shortly after, on looking to the right, the serrated ridge, sharp peaks, and deep clefts of Serbal