Spring is in the air... "Carmel in Spring" according to "the Land of Israel",chapter XXI, a journal of Travels in Palestine (1865) by Reverend Henry Baker Tristram * (1822 - 1906) The last week of March was devoted to a thorough exploration of all the nooks and dells of Mount Carmel... Then the ground, wherever there was a fragment of open space, was covered with tall red hollyhocks, pink convolvulus, valerians, a beautiful large red linum, a gladiolus, a gigantic mottled arum, red tulips, ranunculus (large and red); pheasant's eye (Adonis), of endless varieties, as large and abundant as the anemone; tufts of exquisite cyclamen, a mass of bloom under every tree; five species of orchids- the curioud Ophrys atrata, with its bee-like lip, another like the spider-orchids, and a third like theman-orchis; while four species of Onosma, and especially the brilliant yellow Onosma syriacum, hung from every rock. It was the garden of Eden run wild; yet all beauty scarcely lasts a month. Alcea setosa, Bristly Hollyhock, חוטמית זיפנית Convolvulus althaeoides, Falmate Bindweed, חבלבל כפני Valerianella vesicaria, Bladder Corn Salad, ולריינית משולחפת Linum pubescens. Hairy Pink Flax, שתה שעירה Gladiolus italicus, Common Gladiolus, סייפן התבואה Arum palaestinum, Palestine Arum, לוף ארצישראלי Ranunculus asiaticus, Turban Buttercup, נורית אסיה Adonis, Pheasant's Eye, דמומית Cyclamen persicum, Persian Cyclamen, רקפת מצויה Ophrys, Bee-Orchid, דבורנית Onosma orientalis, Syrian Golden-drop, מציץ סורי *In 1858 H.B.Tristram visited Palestine, returning there in 1863 and 1872, dividing his time between natural history observations and identifying Scripture localities.