142 PEOF. ALLMAN ON THE 



the aromatic exhalations of the Labiata?. But the life of the 

 Cistus-blossom is a short one. In a few hours the corolla has 

 fulfilled its function. Opening to the morning and to the noon, 

 the petals soon fall to the ground, and long before the setting of 

 the sun there is nowhere to be seen over all that hill-side a vestige 

 of the great blossoms of white and purple which had but an hour 

 before spread such a glory over the landscape. And day after day 

 does the young corolla open its petals to the morning, and cast them 

 to the ground before the evening in uninterrupted sequence until 

 the advancing summer brings the period of flowering to an end. 



But it is not alone the trees and shrubs of the Mediterranean 

 which give character to its vegetation ; multitudes of herbaceous 

 plants burst into flower with the coming spring, and contribute 

 to the landscape an element scarcely less important than that 

 presented by the plants of arborescent and shrubby growth. 



Where the soil has some depth, no matter how dry and sandy 

 it may be, on the low lands near the sea-shore, or in open glades 

 in the wooded hills, more especially in the district of Hyeres, the 

 small-fruited and large-fruited Asphodels (Asphodelus microcarpus 

 and A. cerasiferus) send up to a height of more than three feet, 

 from the midst of long pointed leaves, their great flower-stalks, 

 dividing into many branches in the one, but a stately undivided 

 column in the other, and in both covered with large white star- 

 like flowers ; while in the same district the sunny borders of the 

 woods are ornamented by the nearly allied but far more delicate 

 Simethis bicolor, with its flowers of a pure white within and rose- 

 colour without ; multitudes of tender Euphorbias, with leaves of 

 the softest green, spring up over the rough stony soil ; the 

 long trailing stems of the Periwinkle ( Vinca media) cover them- 

 selves, as they creep over the ground, with bright blue flowers, 

 and may be seen on shady banks and in the hedges and along 

 the margins of the watercourses ; while on drier and less shady 

 banks, and along the sunny borders of the olive-woods, the beau- 

 tiful Convolvulus altheoides throws out its slender leafy stems, 

 ready to twine round the first support they may meet, and laden 

 with their large campanulate flowers of delicate rose, which ex- 

 pand to the hottest rays of the southern sun. 



The fine cruciferous plant, Moricandia arvensis, affords a re- 

 markable example of limited distribution, being on the northern 

 shores of the Mediterranean nearly confined to a narrow area be- 

 tween Mortola and Ventimiglia, where it occurs abundantly and 



