140 PEOF. ALLMAST ON THE 



In other places the underwood is largely composed of the rigid 

 shrubs of the wild olive, associated with the deeper green and 

 more glossy-leaved Phillyreas (Phillyrea angustifolia and P. lati- 

 folia),the Lentiscus (Pistacia Lentiscus), the Mhamnus Alaternus, 

 the Juniperus Oxycedrus (which replaces the J. communis of 

 our own woods), the great Heath of the Mediterranean (Erica 

 arborea), and the Myrtle (Myrtus communis), the only European 

 representative of its order, while multitudes of leguminous shrubs 

 (Spartium, Genista, Cytisus, and Coronilla) mingle their golden 

 flowers with the greenery of the rest of the underwood. Indeed 

 one of the most remarkable features of the woods is the luxuriance 

 of the undergrowth. Seldom is a spot of ground left uncovered, 

 for even the thickest woods exert no injurious action on the 

 plants which thus grow so freely beneath their shadow. 



Rich, however, as is the undergrowth of the wooded hills, it is 

 where the trees are absent, or so thinly scattered as to allow un- 

 impeded access to the rays of the sun, that the shrubby and subfru- 

 tescent vegetation becomes developed with all that multiplicity of 

 form and freedom of growth which throws so indescribable a charm 

 over the rugged hill-side, clothing rock and crag, and ridge, and 

 arid cliff, and wild ravine with a plant-life such as a southern sun 

 can alone call into existence. For here we may wander amid groves 

 of heath, no longer limited to the humble forms of our northern 

 moors,but attaining the height of some of the largest of our shrubs, 

 and covered in the early spring with masses of white or pale rose- 

 coloured flowers, which fill the air with the fragrance of a meadow 

 of freshly-mown hay ; aromatic Labiatae, Thyme (Thymus vulyaris) 

 and Kosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), take possession of the driest 

 and hottest spots, while the broad leafy translucent bracts which 

 crown the spikes of the angular-headed Lavender (Lavandula 

 Stcechas) become lighted up with the intensest of violets under 

 the obliquely-falling rays of the late afternoon sun. The spiny 

 Smilax (Smilax aspera), with its heart-shaped rigid leaves and its 

 clusters of scarlet berries, scrambles wildly over the rough stony 

 ground ; the yellow Jasmine (Jasminum fruticans), the elegant 

 shrubby G-lobularia ( Globularia Alypum), covered with its spheri- 

 cal clusters of bright blue flowers, and the Daphne Gnidium, with 

 its fresh green foliage, root themselves in the crevices of the 

 rocks ; the singular little woody Euphorbia (Euphorbia spinosa), 

 whose dry ligneous stems of the preceding year are concealed 

 among the young pale green leaves of the present, adorns the 



