It has been remarked that, if the advantages of nature were duly seconded by the efforts of human skill, we might in the space of twenty leagues bring together in Syria the vegetable riches of the most distant countries. Besides wheat, rye, barley, beans, and the cotton-plant, which are cultivated everywhere, there are several objects of utility or pleasure, peculiar to different localities. Palestine, for example, abounds in sesamum, which affords oil; and in dhoura, similar to that of Egypt. Maize thrives in the light soil of Balbec, and rice is cultivated with success along the marsh of Haoul_. Within these twenty-five years sugar-canes have been introduced into the gardens of Saida and Beirout, which are not inferior to those of the Delta. Indigo grows without culture on the banks of the Jordan, and only requires a little care to secure a good quality. The hills of Latakie produce tobacco, which creates a commercial intercourse with Damietta and Cairo. This crop is at present cultivated in all the mountains. The white mulberry forms the riches of the Druses, by the beautiful silks which are obtained from it; and the vine, raised on poles or creeping along the ground, furnishes red and white wines equal to those of Bordeaux. Jaffa boasts of her lemons and watermelons; Gaza possesses both the dates of Mecca and the pomegranates of Algiers. Tripoli has oranges which might vie with those of Malta; Beirout has figs like Marseilles, and bananas like St. Domingo. Aleppo is unequalled for pistachio-nuts; and Damascus possesses all the fruits of Europe; inasmuch as apples, plums, and peaches, grow with equal facility on her rocky soil. Niebuhr is of opinion that the Arabian coffee-shrub might be cultivated in Palestine.[205] The _fig-tree_, the _palm_, and the _olive_, are characteristic of the Holy Land, and therefore deserve our more particular attention. In regard to the first, the earliest fruit produced, which is usually ripe in June, is called the boccore; the later, or proper fig, being rarely fit to be gathered before the month of August. The name of these last is the kermez, or kermouse. They constitute the article which passes through the hands of the merchant, after being either preserved in the common way or made up into cakes. They continue a long time on the tree before they fall off; whereas the boccore drop as soon as they are ripe, and according to the beautiful allusion of the prophet Nahum, "fall into the mouth of the eater upon being shaken."