We soon left behind us the irrigated ground, and entered on a barren region, less absolutely sterile than that of the preceding day’s journey, and having a more varied vegetation. Blocks of black volcanic rock were more frequent, and of larger size, indicating that we were nearer to the place of their origin, wherever that may be. In some spots _Artemisia Herba alba_ was the predominant plant, but we met several new species not before seen. One of the most curious of these is a white-flowered _Picris_ (_P. albida_), afterwards seen at intervals in the low country, whose ligules wither so rapidly that we failed to secure any satisfactory specimens. Without becoming hilly, the surface lay in slight heaving undulations, the upward slope being always longest towards the east; and the same remark applied throughout the day’s ride. In about three hours we reached Aïn Beida, where a copious spring of excellent water fertilises a tract of about a square mile. We turned aside from our track to halt beneath a very fine pistachio tree,[3] fully forty feet high and two feet in diameter. The sun was very hot, though the temperature of the air was not more than 80° Fahr., and we were assured that our halting place for the night was only four hours’ distant; and so it happened that between luncheon, and rest, and short excursions into the blazing sunshine to botanise in the surrounding corn-fields, we did not resume our journey until 3.20 P.M. The baggage train as usual had gone on ahead; and as the evening light was fading fast, about 7.20 P.M., when we expected to be near our night quarters, some inquiry from our escort revealed two disagreeable facts: first, that we were still nearly two hours’ ride from Misra ben Kara; and secondly, that the baggage train had taken a different road. It is not surprising that such intelligence coming suddenly on three hungry and tired Englishmen, with the further prospect of passing the night without food or shelter, led to a vehement row, in which strong, if not intelligible language was discharged at the head of the worthy Kaïd El Hadj, the commander of our escort. The whole affair had probably arisen from some misunderstanding; but it was settled by sending two of the escort to ride at full gallop after the missing baggage train, while we jogged on sad and silent towards our destined quarters for the night. Being pressed for time, we had abstained from botanising by the way from Aïn Beida; but at one place we stopped to gather some extraordinarily fine specimens of _Phelipæa lutea_, which caught our eyes in the failing light. This is the king of the broomrape tribe; the stems stood four or five feet high, with sceptre-like spikes of large yellow flowers, nearly two feet long, but it was quite too dark to ascertain on what plant this curious parasite had attached itself.