"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٢‎٥‎٦] (٧٣٨/٥١٧)

506
SAMARIA (INCLUDING CARMEL)
and at Mellahah 2 miles N. of it. The fellahin make small
pans in the interior, to which they carry the sea-water and
obtain salt in this way,
Flora .—Speaking generally of the natural vegetation of
Carmel, the rugged fringe of the ridge and the deep valleys
between soft rocky grey cliffs that penetrate it are covered
thickly with a luxuriant growth of shrubs, trees, and plants ;
higher up, where the bare fractured limestone rock appears
and there is an almost total lack of cultivable earth, large
areas are covered only with a thorny herbage, and have the
character of more or less stony wilderness. The rest is a
surface of thick plant growth, where the hundreds of varieties
of delicate wild flowers of spring give way in summer to
more aromatic growth and thorny plants with woody stalks,
which, after surviving the hot months, make way in turn
for the flora of the rainy season. The ruling colour of the
vegetation of Carmel is an undecided green inclining to
a yellowish grey or, more seldom, to blue.
Carmel has lost for the most part the rich natural forest
growth for which it appears to have been formerly reputed ;
but even so the valleys are generally better wooded than the
rest of Samaria. Except for groups of trees in a few places,
mostly either on private property or protected by sacred
tradition, and isolated trees here and there, the upland
region is now comparatively bare and open. Oliphant says :
‘ Formerly—and even within the memory of man—the lower
ground round Carmel and the valleys penetrating its outer
edge were full of fine tree-growth ; the uplands were probably
never covered with forests.’ If ever Carmel was ‘ a land of
forests ’, most of the timber trees have now disappeared
and what remain are being yearly further depleted. The
increasing demand for fuel and charcoal for Haifa and other
centres and for numerous lime-kilns daily involves fresh
sacrifices ; goats prevent renewal by eating up all tree-
seedlings. Decades of neglect have completed the work of
deforestation.
Among the trees and shrubs the evergreen-oak or ilex