The Maccabaean

BUT now Jaffa has turned from war to peace and become one of the famous cities of the East. It is beautifully situated on a series of hills of equal height about one hundred feet above shore, and, while looking from the sea, these hills appear barren and sandy; at a close range they are sprinkled with green patches. These are the famous “Bayares” or orangeries for which Jaffa is known all over the East. The oranges grow to the size of an ostrich egg and have thick skin. In season the pulp is sweet, juicy, tender, and contains few seeds. Not even California or Florida, having the advantage of the most skilled horticulturists, can dispute with Jaffa the primary of the orange-growing world. Everything about the city smells of oranges. Visiting these orange groves, one finds himself in a sea of golden globes which form the most beautiful contrast with the green leaves that surround them. This spectacle is especially memorable when seen in a full-moon night. The reflection of the silvery moon on these golden globes forms the most charming picture. Other fruits in Jaffa garden are citrons, bananas, grapes, almonds, peaches, apricots and pomegranates. The most common flowers in Jaffa gardens are roses and jessamines. Rubber plants, and olianders are among the wild plants that grow all over

The gardens in Jaffaff, as all through Palestine, are enclosed with a great thick hedge of cactus plants (cactus opunda) having broad and prickly bristling leaves with sharp points that form a safe and almost impenetrable wall around the garden. Cactus plants are the most common in Judea and are characteristic of Palestine. One leaf stuck in the sandy soil around tht garden will cast root and spread rapidly to form a safe enclosure.

Jaffa can be styled a garden city, for thousands of gardens adorn the municipality. The soil is very fertile, for beneath the sand blown from the sea, the soil is rich

(Concluded).

and the harvest is immense. The abundance of water is the cause of its fertility. One has to dig only a few feet and is sure to meet a spring. It appears that a great underground stream runs continually from the hills towards the sea. Every orchard has thus ample means of irrigation. The bringing up of the water to the surface is accomplished by means of a clumsy looking water wheel turned by an ox, an ass or a mule, who is fastened to a long pole and, while driven slowly round turns a beam which carries on its top a large wheel that draws up and lets down a series of wooden buckets. This ingenious though primitive well is called "Shakiya."

The gardens of Jaffa stretch inland from the sea about three miles and extend about three miles north and south.

After obtaining a good view of the town, we started for the suburbs in a carriage pulled by two horses. A Jewish coachman acted as the dragoman. We drove upon the Ramleh way along the gardens, passing on one side of the lane which was shadowed by a wall of cactus, and we soon came into the most beautiful view imaginable. Before us, on the right, the blooming vale of Sharon spread, and on the left the blue hills of Judaea were in view. "It makes little difference," said Charles Dudley Warner, "what kind of conveyance one has. It is impossible for him to advance upon this historic if not sacred plain and catch the first glimpse of these plain hills without a great quickening of the pulse. The elements of it are simple enough, merely a wide sweep of prairies and a line of graceful mountains, but the form is pleasing and the color incomparable, the soil is warm and red, the fields are a mass of wild flowers of the most brilliant and variegated hues and alternately swept by the shadows of clouds and bathes in the sun. The scene takes on the animation of incessant change.

The plain of Sharon is as beautiful to-