I never travelled through _Syria_, either with a botanical view, or at the proper season; so that I cannot pretend to give any tolerable account of the plants growing at any distance from _Aleppo_. The few, however, that came to my knowledge, I shall just mention. On the mountains grow several sorts of oaks, pines, myrtle, juniper, bay, St. _John_’s bread, kermes, azarole, the fruit of which is brought to market in the autumn; and the andrachne in such plenty, that it affords nigh one half of the wood used for fuel in _Aleppo_. The shining red of its bark, together with the beauty of its flowers and fruit, will, I doubt not, make it esteemed as a valuable acquisition to the _British_ gardens, if it agree with our climate, which the thriving condition of several plants raised here seems to promise. The bindweed[332], from whence the _Aleppo_ scammony of the shops is procured, does not grow near the city, but chiefly on the mountains. This drug is the inspissated milky juice that flows from the root by incision; and each produces but a very small quantity. As the plant grows wild, it is the property of any one that will take the trouble to look for it, which is the employment of some peasants at the proper season; and having collected what they can of the milky liquor, they carry it to the nearest village of any note, where there are always some traders (chiefly _Jews_) ready to purchase it of them; and these people generally mix it with wheat flour, sand, ashes, _&c._ so that at present very little is brought quite pure to market at _Aleppo_. It does not appear that any thing it is adulterated with increases its violence in operating; on the contrary, the purer the scammony, the smaller I have always found the dose: so that the notion of its being mixed with the juice of the spurge seems without foundation. However, the proportion of the heterogeneous substances mixed with it being various, renders the dose of the medicine as found in the shops very uncertain, and so occasions its being seldomer prescribed than so safe and efficacious a purgative otherwise deserves. For further particulars relating to this plant, see _Medical Observations and Inquiries_, Vol. I.—At the bottom of the page is a catalogue of such other plants as have come within my observation on the mountains, and in other parts of _Syria_[333]. [Illustration: _Pla 7 facing page 46_ _Phlomis Orientalis hormini folio flore minore calyce Glabro._ _G. D. Ehret delin:_ _J. S. Miller sc:_] [Illustration: _Pla 8: facing page 47._ _Phlomis Orientalis Angusto & longiore folio flore luteo._ _G. D. Ehret delin:_ _J. S. Miller sc:_] There are no metals found any where near _Aleppo_, or, so far as I know of, in all _Syria_; though some of the rocky hills from their appearance seem to contain an iron ore. Nigh to _Antioch_ a few garnets are picked up, but of an inferior quality.