"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [و‎‎٥‎٦] (٧٣٨/١١٦)

FLORA
105
the highlands of southern Syria support a copious and pecu
liar natural vegetation which, though useless to man directly,
is of great indirect value as it furnishes the food of large
flocks of goats which are the sole source of livelihood of
no inconsiderable part of the population. Goats, however,
do much harm by devouring all seedling trees and so pre
venting the renewal of the forests so needed in the high
mountain ranges both as a direct source of wealth and as
a regulator of the rainfall.
The characteristic wild flora of the almost treeless plains
of the interior consists of numerous species of the milk vetch,
the centaury, and the sage. These plains are one of the great
wheat-producing regions of the Levant: maize, dhura, sesame,
barley, and, in wet places, rice also flourish in this zone.
The flora of the Jordan Valley, besides sharing the charac
teristics of the lower levels of Palestine, has an element of
tropical vegetation similar to the Upper Egyptian and
Nubian. Palms and sugar-cane once flourished here. The
so-called ‘ Balm of Gilead ’ tree (zaqqum) grows nowhere in
Syria but in "the Jordan valley, and the same is true of the
‘ushr, or ‘Apples of Sodom’ (Calotropis procera), and the
papyrus reed. The ‘ushr is a strange tree with large fleshy
leaves, a crumpled corky bark, and a curious deceptive fruit
—full of dusty threads and air instead of succulence. The
papyrus covers very large areas in the marshes of Huleh.
The willow, poplar, and tamarisk are very common along the
banks of the Jordan, and a kind of broom grows profusely in the
side wadis of the Jordan valley. Poplar trees grow also in con
siderable numbers on the watercourses in the Damascus district.
The desert flora is peculiar and interesting and consists
largely of aromatic, saline and succulent plants and dwarf
thorny shrubs. It contributes to man’s maintenance by
supporting considerable herds of camels and, in some places,
asses. Not all the so-called desert is unproductive : the valleys
of the Dead Sea Ghor and towards Sinai have, until recently,
contained large numbers of various kinds of acacia trees
Acacia Nilotica and gum acacia—tamarisk, Christ-Thorn, and