st the wild almond and the
dwarf oak, and then the usual timber-trees of the country, the Oriental
plane, the willow, the poplar, and the walnut. The walnut grows to a
large size both here and in Azerbijan, but the poplar is the wood most
commonly used for building purposes. In Zagros, besides most of these
trees, the ash and the terebinth or turpentine-tree are common; the oak
bears gall-nuts of a large size; and the gum-tragacanth plant frequently
clothes the mountain-sides. The valleys of this region are full of
magnificent orchards, as are the low grounds and more sheltered nooks of
Azerbijan. The fruit-trees comprise, besides vines and mulberries, the
apple, the pear, the quince, the plum, the cherry, the almond, the nut,
the chestnut, the olive, the peach, the nectarine, and the apricot.

On the plains of the high plateau there is a great scarcity of
vegetation. Trees of a large size grow only in the few places which are
well watered, as in the neighborhood of Hamadan, Isfahan, and in a
less degree of Kashan. The principal tree is the Oriental plane, which
flourishes together with poplars and willows along the water-courses;
cypresses also grow freely; elms and cedars are found, and the orchards
and gardens contain not only the fruit-trees mentioned above, but also
the jujube, the cornel, the filbert, the medlar, the pistachio nut, the
pomegranate, and the fig. Away from the immediate vicinity of the rivers
and the towns, not a tree, scarcely a bush, is to be seen. The common
thorn is indeed tolerably abundant in a few places; but elsewhere the
tamarisk and a few other sapless shrubs are the only natural products of
this bare and arid region.

In remarkable contrast with the natural barrenness of this wide tract
are certain favored districts in Zagros and Azerbijan, where the herbage
is constant throughout the summer, and sometimes only too luxuriant.
Such are the rich and extensive grazing grounds of Khawah and Alishtar,
near Kermanshah, the pastures near Ojan and Marand, and the celebrated
Chowal Moghan or plain of Moghan, on the lower course of the Araxes
river, where the grass is said to grow sufficiently high to cover a
man on horseback. These, however, are rare exceptions to the general
character of the country, which is by nature unproductive, and scarcely
deserving even of the qualified encomium of Strabo.

Still Media, though deficient in natural products, is not ill adapted
for cultivation. The Zagros