y times. The combination of sand, moisture,
and a moderately saline soil, in which it delights, was there found in
perfection, more especially in the lower country, which had but recently
been reclaimed from the sea. Even now, when cultivation is almost wholly
laid aside, a thick forest of luxuriant date-trees clothes the banks of
the Euphrates on either side, from the vicinity of Mugheir to its
embouchure at the head of the Persian Gulf. Anciently the tract was much
more generally wooded with them. "Palm-trees grow in numbers over the
whole of the flat country," says one of the most observant and truthful
of travellers--Herodotus. According to the historians of Julian, a
forest of verdure extended from the upper edge of the alluvium, which he
crossed, to Mesene, and the shores of the sea. When the Arabian
conquerors settled themselves in the lower country, they were so charmed
with the luxuriant vegetation and the abundant date-groves, that they
compared the region with the country about Damascus and reckoned it among
their four earthly paradises. The propagation of the date-palm was
chiefly from seed. In Chaldaea, however, it was increased sometimes from
suckers or offshoots thrown up from the stem of the old tree; at other
times by a species of cutting, the entire head being struck off with
about three feet of stem, notched, and then planted in moist ground.
Several varieties of the tree were cultivated; but one was esteemed above
all the rest, both for the size and flavor of the fruit. It bore the
name of "Royal," and grew only in one place near Babylon.

Beside these two precious products, Chaldaea produced excellent barley,
millet, sesame, vetches and fruits of all kinds. It was, however,
deficient in variety of trees, possessing scarcely any but the palm and
the cypress. Pomegranates, tamarisks, poplars, and acacias are even now
almost the only trees besides the two above mentioned, to be found
between Samarah and the Persian Gulf. The tamarisk grows chiefly as a
shrub along the rivers, but sometimes attains the dimensions of a tree,
as in the case of the "solitary tree" still growing upon the ruins of
Babylon. The pomegranates with their scarlet flowers, and the acacias
with their light and graceful foliage, ornament the banks of the streams,
generally intermingled with the far more frequent palm, while oranges,
apples, pears, and vines are successfully cultivated in the gardens and
orchards.

[Ill