"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٥‎٥] (٧٣٨/١١٥)

104
MINERALS, FLORA, AND FAUNA
The lower and middle zone of the mountains is the favoured
home of the mulberry, the fig, the olive (which also grows
luxuriantly in the maritime plain), and the vine. Tree
culture is the main industry of the Lebanon and a considerable
one on the mountains of Palestine. The cereals grown in the
mountains are insufficient for the support of the population
and cannot be rated as a staple in such districts. The main
reliance of Lebanon is the mulberry, which not only furnishes
the food of the silk-worm, but later that of the sheep and
horned cattle. Anti-Lebanon is far less fertile and tree culture
is less common; but there are many more forest trees here
than in Lebanon, and at similar altitudes corresponding
productions are raised. Hermon and Jebel ed-Druz are (or
were) partially wooded, bearing dense oak forests in places.
The forest trees of this middle zone are : the Aleppo pine
and Lebanon pine ; various species of maple ; the Portuguese,
Lebanon, evergreen, Valonia and other oaks ; the Syrian ash;
the cypress ; the storax ; the arbutus, which attains the size of
a considerable tree in ‘Ajlun and the Belqa ; the terebinth or
turpentine tree; and, in northern Syria, the beech and horn
beam. The walnut and almond are generally cultivated, as
also the carob and pistachio. All the ordinary fruit-trees
(apple, peach, pear, plum, apricot, &c.) flourish. The syco-
more fig, though not very common, is widely distributed and
grows to a great size. At an altitude of about 6,000 ft., the
cedar of Lebanon flourishes and doubtless once covered the
sub-alpine zone of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. It is now
found in only a few groves of Lebanon and is extinct in
Anti-Lebanon, but grows in considerable numbers in the
Amanus range. Of wild fruit-trees, there are but few in this
zone. The sour plum (Prunus ursina) is very common in the
middle and sub-alpine regions of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon;
a dwarf cherry flourishes in the same region; and there are
the jujube tree, the hawthorn, and the Syrian pear. Of shrubs,
almost the only one with an edible fruit is the wild black
berry.
The alpine peaks of Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, Amanus, and