The dwarf palm
with fan-like leaves, growing about two feet high, formed the
staple of the verdure. As we brushed through them, the gummy
leaves of a cistus stuck to the clothes; and with its small white
flower and yellow heart, stood for our English dog-rose. In place
of heather, we had myrtle and lentisque with leaves somewhat
similar. That large bulb with long flat leaves? Do not touch it
if your hands are cut; the Arabs use it as blisters for their
horses. Is that the same sort? No, take that one up; it is the
bulb of a dwarf palm, each layer of the onion peels off, brown and
netted, like the outside of a cocoa-nut. It is a clever plant
that; from the leaves we get a vegetable horsehair; - and eat the
bottom of the centre spike. All the leaves you pull have the same
aromatic scent. But here a little patch of cleared ground shows
old friends, who seem to cling by abused civilisation:-fine, hardy
thistles, one of them bright yellow, though; - honest, Scotch-
looking, large daisies or gowans; - potatoes here and there,
looking but sickly; and dark sturdy fig-trees looking cool and at
their ease in the burning sun.
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