The terrace ran along the south side of the low pyramidal area on which the temple was elevated. From it there was a lovely view of fields, and gardens, and groves of palm and orange trees, extending over the land of Goshen, which is the most fertile and highly-cultivated portion of Egypt that I have seen. From the terrace, steps of polished porphyry led to a garden fragrant with flowers, which were cultivated alongside of the temple, in order to make of them offerings of chaplets to the god, who was crowned with them every morning by the "flower priest." The office of this dignitary was as sacred as his who offered incense, which indeed is but the fragrance of flowers in another form, purified by fire. In this garden I saw the myrobalanum, with its rich fruit, out of which a rare ointment is extracted for anointing the priests; the phœnicobalanus, which bears an intoxicating fruit, and gives to the priests who eat of it divining powers; the graceful palma, or sheath for the palm-flowers; the almond-tree, brilliant with its flowering branches; the wine-giving myxa; the ivory-palm fruit, of which censers are made; the mimosa Nilotica, and the golden olive of Arsinoë. All these grew on one path, which traversed the garden close to the terrace, and I enumerate them, dear mother, as I know your horticultural taste, and that any thing about the plants of Egypt will gratify you. I have already selected several of the most beautiful, and intend, by the first ship that sails for Tyre from the Nile, to forward them to you. That they may be cared for, and rightly managed when you receive them, I shall send with them an Egyptian gardener. I have seen no oaks in Egypt, nor does our majestic Libanian cedar grow here. It is a land rather of flowers than of trees. The myrtle is everywhere seen as an ornamental tree, and is highly odoriferous in this climate. Here, I saw also the endive, and the Amaracus, from the latter of which the celebrated Amaracine ointment, used to anoint the Pharaohs, is expressed. One bed of variegated flowers, at the end of the terrace, attracted my attention from their combined splendor. There were the edthbah, with its proud purple flower; the ivy-shaped-leaved dulcamara, used by the priests for sacred chaplets; also the acinos, of which wreaths are made by maidens, to wear intermingled with their braided tresses. Above all towered the heliochrysum, with which the gods are crowned, and by it grew its rival, the sacred palm, the branches of which are borne at the feasts of Isis. There were many other rare and beautiful plants, but I have enumerated these to show you what a land of flowers is this sunny land of Osiris and Isis. The prince, after we had once traversed the terrace in silence, turned his thoughtful face towards me and said, betraying what was upon his thoughts-- "Prince, this is the problem of Egypt. Its solution calls for greater wisdom than belongs to man!"