In considering the main characteristics of the jujube we find that it is a spreading shrub, frequently attaining a height of 3 to 4 meters, with branches well armed with stout spines. The leaves are small, simple, and leathery. (Compare fig. 14.) The spines are so efficient as a means of protection that the shrub shows no signs of being eaten by animals, although, as quoted above, Massart remarks that after his camels had gone five days without food they ate the jujube branches in spite of the spines. The unarmed betoum and the armed jujube have a very interesting relationship, which is as follows: When the seeds of the betoum germinate the seedling is eagerly eaten by animals if it chances, as is usually the case, that the germination occurs on the open daya floor; but if the seeds are carried to a _Zizyphus_ and germinate in its midst, the young plants may attain to a considerable height before being seen by animals, and, being protected by the encircling jujube, will continue growing until they are too large to be easily killed through grazing. It usually happens that once the betoum plant appears above the top of the protecting shrub the camels attempt to reach the attractive shoots and the jujube is trodden under foot. The jujube is thus ultimately destroyed and a mound around the base of the young betoum is all of it that remains. If the jujube is relatively small and the developing betoum is discovered while still small, it will be much eaten, and probably killed; but if it reaches a considerable height before the discovery is made, only the lower branches will be devoured and the specimen will survive. Massart was unable to find any young betoums, but when my visit to Tilrempt was made, November, 1910, there were several, although so well hidden as to cause much trouble in finding them. A view of one of these is shown in fig. 13. The betoum is eaten by the gazelle as well as by domestic animals, which are abundant enough in this region, and this fact is probably of great influence in restricting its distribution. Fairly numerous on the desert at present, according to Tristram the gazelle was very abundant in earlier times; he speaks of their tracks marking the plain like sheep-walks. From what we have already seen regarding the ill effect of grazing, it will appear that the relation between the betoum and the jujube is a very vital one to the former; and it probably is not too much to say that the distribution of the betoum in the daya region is entirely dependent on that of the jujube, since there is no other armed shrub in the region to afford the protection essential to its survival; with relatively favorable moisture conditions, considerable depth of soil, and a protecting jujube, the betoum will flourish and reproduce now quite as well as in former years. THE CHEBKA.