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286 ikIK. J. ball's SPICILEGIUM FLOnm MAHOCCATf^. 



assistance from the Prencli diplomatic agents in Marocco, his 



progress was impeded at every step ; and after about a fortnight ^ | 



he was forced to abandon the attempt and return to Mogador. 



He nevertheless was able to collect a large number of the new 



and remarkable species which characterize the skirts of the great 



mountain-range and the lower mountains that diverge from the 



main chain. 



The short time at his disposal enabled M. Balansa to collect so 

 few duplicates that many of the new species subsequently de- 

 scribed by M. Cosson are not to be found in the principal her- 

 baria of Europe, and several of these, as well as the other plants 

 of his journey, are preserved only in the magnificent herbarium 

 of M. Cosson. 



Along with other materials scarcely to be found outside that 

 herbarium, I should mention a collection made by M. AVarion, in 

 the medical service of the French army, a good observer and col- 

 lector, who gathered many plants on the eastern frontier of 

 Marocco, adjoining the French province of Oran. 



Early in the year 1871 Dr. Hooker, who had long felt a desire 

 to explore the range of the Great Atlas, applied to Earl Granville, 

 then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to use the influence of 

 the English Government at the court of Marocco to obtain the 

 necessary permission of the Sultan. The information received 

 from Sir John Drummond Hay, our minister at the court of Ma- 

 rocco, was so far favourable that Dr. Hooker determined to leave 

 England in the spring of that year ; and I was fortunate enough 

 to be able to accompany him, along with our mutual friend Mr. 

 George Maw, who, as well as myself, had already made an attempt 

 to visit the extremity of the chain of the Lesser Atlas of Marocco 

 in the neighbourhood of Tetuan. 



We received before starting valuable information and aid from 

 our excellent friend M. Cosson, who was kind enough to prepare 

 a manuscript list of all the plants then known or believed to in- 

 habit the Marocco territory, as far as his unequalled means of in- 

 formation would go. 



In our subsequent course we were under deep obligations to 

 onr active and energetic representative in Marocco already named, 

 and to all the British consular agents on the coast, and especially- 

 to the late Mr. Carstensen, then Vice-consul at Mogador, through 

 whose hospitality and active assistance our stay was rendered 

 agreeable, and our journey into the interior materially expedited. 



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