OBSEBVED AT MOGABOB. 27 



tribution, however inconsiderable or imperfect, towards a correct 

 appreciation of the general affinities of its animal or vegetable 

 productions. 



The first impression of the vegetation on the eye, at landing, is 

 that of something quite peculiar, to the traveller arriving fresh 

 from the Canaries or Madeira. It is completely European, i. e. 

 Andalusian, or Spanish-European. There is not a Palm, a Banana, 

 or a Cactus to be seen. The shrubby Canarian Euphorbiaeeae are 

 equally wanting with the Madeiran shrubby Composite, Labiates, 

 and Crucifercs, or the Porto-Santan Salsolacece, in the immediate 

 vicinity of the sea. The Arabian Peganum Harmala, L., supersedes 

 them all on the sea-shore ; and the general aspect is as remote 

 from the luxuriant tropical richness of the neighbourhood of 

 Eunchal, and indeed of the sea-cliffs generally in Madeira — clothed 

 with naturalized thickets of Arundo Donax, L., Colocasia Anti- 

 quorum, Schott, Opuntia Tuna, Mill., Cassia bicapsularis, L., Pelar- 

 gonium inquinans, L., &c, and a host of indigenous Composites, 

 CrassulaeecB, Cmnpanulacecs, Labiates, &c. — as it is from the rugged 

 stern, dull-grey and black Euphorbia-clad rocks and cliffs of 

 Canarian coast-scenery in general, as in particular from the bald, 

 pale, glaring, shingly sea-coast hills and slopes of Grand Canary, 

 or from the flat, bare, sun-baked red and yellow shores and plains 

 of Lanzarote and Euerteventura, devoid almost of any little 

 patch or tinge of green. The entire absence of all trees near the 

 coast is a feature common no less to Mogador and all the Canary 

 Islands, than to Porto Santo and the Dezertas in the Madeiran. 

 The low sandy hills, of uniform height, which, at the distance of a 

 mile or two, skirt the flat belt of lower land bordering the sea, 

 stretching parallel therewith, north and south, far as the eye can 

 reach, are clothed, at first sparingly or partially, then more closely, 

 with low thickets of Broom {Retama monosperma, L.) and Lentisk 

 (Pistacia Lentiscus, L.), intermixed with a few dwarfed trees of 

 Argania, or shrubs of Phamnus, Vitcx, Ephedra, Clematis, &c. In 

 the bed of the river the most abundant and characteristic plants 

 are the Oleander and Vitex ; and in the stream itself I observed 

 Potamogeton, "Water-cresses, Helosciadium, &c. 



The weeds, indeed, are all of the commonest European aspect. 

 In the town an ordinary-looking white-flowered Chamomile (Ana- 

 cyclus clavatus, Desf.), resembling several of the common English 

 species of Anthemis or Matricaria, covers every neglected flat, 

 house-top, or wall ; and the streets, roads, and gardens offer 

 nothing but the ordinary weeds of cultivated ground in Europe, 



