'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎362] (415/714)

362 PERSIA
immense variety of forest timber that clothes these spurs and valleys
with its shaggy mantle. The trees are mostly deciduous ; and there
3. Forest llave t» een reported by different travellers, the oak,
belt elm, plane, maple, ash, lime, box, walnut, beech, juniper'
yew. Wild vines wreathe the tree-stems and clamber among the
branches. Wild hops, wild figs, plums, pears, and apples abound.
Wild strawberries are met with everywhere; and while honeysuckle
wild briar, and roses deck the undergrowth, in which are seen
laurels, hawthorn, and box, the forest floor is carpeted in spring
time with primroses, violets, and other sylvan flowers. It will be
observed that this flora is in no sense tropical, but is such as
might be encountered in any southerly temperate zone. The
comparison, therefore, with the East or West Indies, which is
naturally suggested by the climate, is in reality a faulty one. The
vegetation is rather that of Southern Europe, to which special
atmospheric conditions, presently to be explained, have superadded
a humidity rarely met with out of the tropics. Wild animals
abound in this region, just as they do in the low-lying jungle
and on the greater altitudes. Tigers of great size are common,
and play havoc with the cattle, though they rarely attack a human
being. Leopards, wolves, bears, wild boar, jackals, lynxes, different
varieties of deer, wild sheep and wild goats, are among the larger
game, and in the Turkoman desert wild donkeys and gazelles;
pheasants and woodcock among the smaller ; whilst in the morasses
and on the lagoons, as I have previously indicated in speaking of
Hesht, are to be found swarms of wild fowl, duck, and snipe.
It is in this third belt, and principally on its lower slopes, that
occur the towns and largest centres of population. Hidden, one
To vns and ma ^ ^erally say buried, amid the trees, they are entered
cuitiva- by the traveller almost before he is aware that he has
left the forest. It is difficult for him to say whether he
is in a village or in a great town, so overtopped and submerged
is everything with the foliage, not merely of natural plantation,
but of orchards and gardens rich in every variety of fruit. I have
already mentioned the wild fruits that grow unasked in the wooded
depths. In cultivated ground may be produced oranges, lemons,
citrons, pomegranates, peaches, melons, medlars, quinces, and
olives. In fact, it would be difficult in temperate regions to name
a tract more favoured by Nature for purposes of production. It is
in country of this character that the silkworm was cultivated, and