metalliferous. Gold is found even at the present day in small
quantities, and seems anciently to have been more abundant. Copper,
iron, and lead have been also met with in modern times, and one iron
mine shows signs of having been anciently worked. Emeralds abound in the
region about Mount Zabara, and the eastern desert further yields
jaspers, carnelians, breccia verde, agates, chalcedonies, and
rock-crystal.

The flora of the country is not particularly interesting. Dom and date
palms are the principal trees, the latter having a single tapering stem,
the former dividing into branches. The sycamore (_Ficus sycamorus_) is
also tolerably common, as are several species of acacia. The acacia
seyal, which furnishes the gum arable of commerce, is "a gnarled and
thorny tree, somewhat like a solitary hawthorn in its habit and manner
of growth, but much larger." Its height, when full grown, is from
fifteen to twenty feet. The _persea_, a sacred plant among the ancient
Egyptians, is a bushy tree or shrub, which attains the height of
eighteen or twenty feet under favourable circumstances, and bears a
fruit resembling a date, with a subacid flavour. The bark is whitish,
the branches gracefully curved, the foliage of an ashy grey, more
especially on its under surface. Specially characteristic of Egypt,
though not altogether peculiar to it, were the papyrus and the
lotus--the _Cyperus papyrus_ and _Nymphæa lotus_ of botanists. The
papyrus was a tall smooth reed, with a large triangular stalk containing
a delicate pith, out of which the Egyptians manufactured their paper.
The fabric was excellent, as is shown by its continuance to the present
day, and by the fact that the Greeks and Romans, after long trial,
preferred it to parchment. The lotus was a large white water-lily of
exquisite beauty. Kings offered it to the gods; guests wore it at
banquets; architectural forms were modelled upon it; it was employed in