icts horned cattle are not numerous; they are similar to the
Indian humped cattle, but are greatly superior in milking qualities.
The great wealth of the Arabs is in their flocks of sheep and goats;
they are led out to pasture soon after sunrise, and in the hotter
months drink every second day. In the spring when the succulent
_ashub_ and _adar_ grow plentifully in the desert, they go for weeks
without drinking. They are milked once a day about sunset by the women
(the men milk the camels), and a large proportion of the milk is made
into _samn_, clarified butter, or _marisi_, dried curd. The wool is
not of much value, and is spun by the women and woven into rugs, and
made up into saddlebags or into the black Bedouin tents.

_Flora._--The flora of Arabia has been investigated by P. Forskal, the
botanist of Niebuhr's mission, P.E. Botta, G. Schweinfurth and A.
Deflers, to whose publications the technical reader is referred. Its
general type approaches more closely to the African than to that of
southern Asia. In the higher regions the principal trees are various
species of fig, tamarind, carob and numerous kinds of cactiform
_Euphorbia_, of which one, the _Euphorbia arborea_, grows to a height
of 20 ft. Of Coniferae the juniper is found on the higher slopes of J.
Sabur near Taiz, where Botta describes it as forming an extensive
forest and growing to a large size; it is also found in the range
overlooking the W. Madin, 50 m. W. of Aden. Considerable forests are
said to exist in Asir, and Burton found a few fine specimens which he
regarded as the remains of an old forest, on the Tehama range in
Midian. On the rocky hill-sides in Yemen the _Adenium Obesum_ is
worthy of notice, with its enormous bulb-like stems and brilliant red
flowers. Some fine aloes or agaves are also found. In the cultivated
upland valleys all over Arabia the _Zisyphus jujuba_, called by some
travellers lotus, grows to a large tree; its thorny branches are
clipped yearly and used to fence the cornfields among which it grows.
In the broad sandy wadi beds the tamarisk (_athl_) is everywhere
found; its wood is used for making domestic implements of all sorts.
Among fruit trees the vine, apricot, peach, apple, quince, fig and
banana are cultivated in the highlands, and in the lower country the
date palm flourishes, particularly throughout the central zone of
Arabia, in Hejaz, Nejd and El Ha