he cultivation of the plateau
depends, were established at so remote a date that they were popularly
ascribed to the mythic Semiramis, the supposed wife of Ninus. It is
thought that in ancient times they were longer and more numerous than at
present, when they occur only occasionally, and seldom extend more than
a few miles from the base of the hills.

By help of the irrigation thus contrived, the great plateau of Iran will
produce good crops of grain, rice, wheat, barley, Indian corn, doura,
millet, and sesame. It will also bear cotton, tobacco, saffron, rhubarb,
madder, poppies which give a good opium, senna, and assafoetida.
Its garden vegetables are excellent, and include potatoes, cabbages,
lentils, kidney-beans, peas, turnips, carrots, spinach, beetroot, and
cucumbers. The variety of its fruit-trees has been already noticed.
The flavor of their produce is in general good, and in some cases
surpassingly excellent. No quinces are so fine as those of Isfahan,
and no melons have a more delicate flavor. The grapes of Kasvin are
celebrated, and make a remarkably good wine.

Among the flowers of the country must be noted, first of all, its roses,
which flourish in the most luxuriant abundance, and are of every variety
of hue. The size to which the tree will grow is extraordinary, standards
sometimes exceeding the height of fourteen or fifteen feet. Lilacs,
jasmines, and many other flowering shrubs are common in the gardens,
while among wild flowers may be noticed hollyhocks, lilies, tulips,
crocuses, anemones, lilies of the valley, fritillaries, gentians,
primroses, convolvuluses, chrysanthemums, heliotropes, pinks,
water-lilies, ranunculuses, jonquils, narcissuses, hyacinths, mallows,
stocks, violets, a fine campanula (Michauxia levigata), a mint (Nepeta
longiflora), several sages, salsolas, and fagonias. In many places the
wild flowers during the spring months cover the ground, painting it with
a thousand dazzling or delicate hues.

The mineral products of Media are numerous and valuable. Excellent stone
of many kinds abounds in almost every part of the country, the most
important and valuable being the famous Tabriz marble. This curious
substance appears to be a petrifaction formed by natural springs, which
deposit carbonate of lime in large quantities. It is found only in one
place, on the flanks of the hills, not far from the Urumiyeh lake. The
slabs are used for tombstones, for the skirting of rooms, and for the