Verdure is not usually wholesome in Arabia, yet invalids leave the close atmosphere of Al-Madinah to seek health under the cool shades of Kuba.  The gardens are divided by what might almost be called lanes, long narrow lines with tall reed fences on both sides.  The graceful branches of the Tamarisk, pearled with manna, and cottoned over with dew, and the broad leaves of the castor plant, glistening in the sun, protected us from the morning

[p.404]rays.  The ground on both sides of the way was sunken, the earth being disposed in heaps at the foot of the fences, an arrangement which facilitates irrigation, by giving a fall to the water, and in some cases affords a richer soil than the surface.  This part of the Madinah plain, however, being higher than the rest, is less subject to the disease of salt and nitre.  On the way here and there the earth crumbles and looks dark under the dew of morning; but nowhere has it broken out into that glittering efflorescence which denotes the last stage of the attack.  The fields and gardens are divided into small oblongs, separated from one another by little ridges of mould which form diminutive water-courses.  Of the cereals there are luxuriant maize, wheat, and barley, but the latter two are in small quantities.  Here and there patches of “Barsim,” or Egyptian clover, glitter brightly in the sunbeams.  The principal vegetables are Badanjan (Egg-plant), the Bamiyah (a kind of esculent hibiscus, called Bhendi in India), and Mulukhiyah (Corchoris olitorius), a mucilaginous spinage common throughout this part of the East.  These three are eaten by citizens of every rank; they are, in fact, the potatoes and the greens of Arabia.  I remarked also onions and leeks in fair quantities, a few beds of carrots and beans; some Fijl (radishes), Lift (turnips), gourds, cucumbers, and similar plants.  Fruit trees abound.  There are five descriptions of vines, the best of which is Al-Sharifi, a long white grape of a flavour somewhat resembling the produce of Tuscany.[FN#11] Next to it, and very similar, is Al-Birni.  The Hijazi is a round fruit, sweet, but insipid, which is also the reproach of the Sawadi, or black grape.  And lastly, the Raziki is a small white fruit, with a diminutive stone.  The Nebek, Lote,

[p.405]or Jujube, is here a fine large tree with a dark green leaf, roundish and polished like the olive; it is armed with a short, curved, and sharp thorn,[FN#12] and bears a pale straw-coloured berry, about the size of the gooseberry, with red streaks on the side next the sun.  Little can be said in favour of the fruit, which has been compared successively by disappointed “Lotus eaters[FN#13]” to a bad plum, an unripe cherry, and an insipid apple.  It is, however, a favourite with the people of Al-Madinah, who have reckoned many varieties of the fruit:  Hindi (Indian), Baladi ("native"), Tamri (date-like), and others.  There are a few peaches, hard like the Egyptian, and almost tasteless, fit only for stewing, but greedily