mences in
April, a sickly time sets in, which causes all the wealthier classes
to withdraw from the country till the stagnant water, which the swell
always leaves behind it, has dried up.

Upon the whole, the climate of the Empire belonged to the warmer class
of the climates which are called temperate. In a few parts only, indeed,
as in the Indus valley, along the coast from the mouth of the Indus
to that of the Tigris, in Lower Babylonia and the adjoining portion
of Susiana, in Southern Palestine, and in Egypt, was frost absolutely
unknown; while in many places, especially in the high mountainous
regions, the winters were bitterly severe; and in all the more elevated
portions of the Empire, as in Phrygia and Cappadocia, in Azerbijan, on
the great Iranian plateau, and again in the district about Kashgar and
Yarkand, there was a prolonged period of sharp and bracing weather. But
the summer warmth of almost the whole Empire was great, the thermometer
probably ranging in most places from 90 deg. to 120 deg. during the months of
June, July, August, and September. The springs and autumns were, except
in the high mountain tracts, mild and enjoyable; the Empire had few very
unhealthy districts; while the range of the thermometer was in most of
the provinces considerable, and the variations in the course of a single
day and night were unusually great, there was in the climate, speaking
generally, nothing destructive of human vigor--nothing even inimical to
longevity.

The vegetable productions of Persia Proper in ancient times (so far as
we have direct testimony on the subject) were neither numerous nor very
remarkable. The low coast tract supplied dates in tolerable plenty,
and bore in a few favored spots, corn, vines, and different kinds of
fruit-trees; but its general character was one of extreme barrenness.
In the mountain region there was an abundance of rich pasture, excellent
grapes were grown, and fruit-trees of almost every sort, except the
olive, flourished. One fruit-tree, regarded as indigenous in the
country, acquired a special celebrity, and was known to the Romans
as the persica, whence the German Pfirsche, the French peche, and our
"peach." Citrons, which grew in few places, were also a Persian fruit.
Further, Persia produced a coarse kind of silphium or assafoetida; it
was famous for its walnuts, which were distinguished by the epithet
of "royal"; and it supplied to the pharmacopeia of Greece and Rome a
certa