J 



> 





MB. J. ball's spicileoium flor.e maroccanje. 301 



+ 



Canary-Island species, the remaining one being common only to 

 Madeira and Western Marocco. It is true that the short list of 

 fifteen species might be somewhat extended if we added certain 

 species peculiar to Marocco but closely allied to Canary-Island 

 endemic species. Such a list would include three cactoid Euphor- 

 bias, a Sonchus (S. acidtis, nearly allied to S, pinnatus), a Senecio 

 of the Kleinia group, and Monanthes atlantica^ nearly allied to its 

 Canary-Island congeners. 



It must be remarked, however, that the types to which these last- 

 mentioned species belong are rather generally "West-African than 

 \ specially Macaronesian, as all are common to the Cape de Verde 



Islands, if not to a wider region. Of the fifteen Macaronesian 

 species found in the coast region of South Marocco, I think it is 

 safe to say that the facts rather tend to show the accidental dif- 

 fusion of a few Macaronesian species on the adjacent coast of 

 Africa than to indicate the existence of a direct connexion be- 

 tween the continent and those islands within a geological period 

 at all recent. 



There remains to be considered the flora of the Great Atlas, 

 the only one of the constituent portions of the general Marocco 

 flora that seems to be confined within the boundaries of the em- 

 pire. I am tempted to enter into some detail in discussing this 

 part of my subject ; but when I recollect what a large mass of 

 additional unpublished matter is already in the possession of my 

 friend M, Cosson, I feel that it would be unsatisfactory to attempt 

 any such detailed discussion at the present time; and I hope to 

 be able to resume the subject to greater advantage on a future 

 occasion. 



In the mean time it is allowable to point out some cliaracter- 

 istic features of the Great-Atlas flora, as far as this is known to 

 me from our collections. Dividing the mountain region into two 

 zones, an upper and a lower one, and fixing the limit between 

 them at about 1500 metres above the sea-level, I find in each of 

 these a considerable number of endemic species, amounting in 

 regard to the upper zone to about one fourth of the whole number 

 of species. But there is little indication of that multiplication of 

 specific forms that is so characteristic of the mountain-floras of 



along with the Canary-Island archipelago. Though the flora of Madeira be 

 more limited than that of the Canaries, it is impossible to regard it as oihor 

 than a detached member of that grou]?. 



