in number of herbs.

The account of Persian vegetable products which we derive from antiquity
is no doubt very incomplete; and it is necessary to supplement it from
the observations of modern travellers. These persons tell us that, while
Fars and Kerman are ill-supplied with forest-trees, they yet produce in
places oaks, planes, chenars or sycamores, poplars, willows, pinasters,
cypresses, acacias, fan-palms, konars, and junipers. Among shrubs, they
bear the wild fig, the wild almond, the tamarisk, the myrtle, the box,
the rhododendron, the camel's thorn, the gum tragacanth, the caper
plant, the benneh, the blackberry, and the liquorice-plant. They boast a
great abundance of fruit-trees--as date-bearing palms, lemons, oranges,
pomegranates, vines, peaches, nectarines, apricots, quinces, pears,
apples, plums, figs, cherries, mulberries, barberries, walnuts, almonds,
and pistachio-nuts. The kinds of grain chiefly cultivated are wheat,
barley, millet, rice, and Indian corn or maize, which has been imported
into the country from America. Pulse, beans, sesame, madder, henna,
cotton, opium, tobacco, and indigo, are also grown in some places. The
three last-named, and maize or Indian corn, are of comparatively recent
introduction; but of the remainder it may be doubted whether there is a
single one which was unknown to the ancient inhabitants.

Among Persian indigenous animals may be enumerated the lion, the bear,
the wild ass, the stag, the antelope, the ibex or wild goat, the wild
boar, the hyena, the jackal, the wolf, the fox, the hare, the porcupine,
the otter, the jerboa, the ichneumon, and the marmot. The lion appears
to be rare, occurring only in some parts of the mountains. The ichneumon
is confined to the Deshtistan. The antelope, the wild boar, the wolf,
the fox, the jackal, the porcupine, and the jerboa are common. Wild
asses are found only on the northern side of the mountains, towards the
salt desert. In this tract they are frequently seen, both singly and in
herds, and are hunted by the natives, who regard their flesh as a great
delicacy.

The most remarkable of the Persian birds are the eagle, the vulture, the
cormorant, the falcon, the bustard, the pheasant, the heath-cock, the
red-legged partridge, the small gray partridge, the pin tailed grouse,
the sand-grouse, the francolin, the wild swan, the flamingo, the stork,
the bittern, the oyster-catcher, the raven, the hooded crow, and
the cuckoo. Besides these,