BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 443 



At ten at night I reached Estepona, fatigued by the long 

 and exhausting day, though well pleased with its results. The 

 following morning I despatched my servant to the foot of the 

 Sierra, that he might collect specimens of Digitalis laciniata, 

 and other plants which I had been unable to gather the pre- 

 vious day, while I myself explored the adjoining hills. The 

 sun had already scorched up most of the annual species; but 

 I found instead, several (Jmbelliferce, Ekeoselinum fcetidum, 

 Thapsia Garganica, Daucus crinitus, and Magydaris panaci- 

 folia. Vegetation was quite green in the valleys, where, 

 round the vine-dressers' huts, which are generally placed by 

 a stream, and shadowed with fig-trees, grew Ononis pendula, 

 Dorycnium hirsutum and D. rectum, with fine species of Vicia 

 and Lathyrus, on the margin of the rivulets. Near the town, 

 the meadows were surprisingly green, I could have thought 

 myself in northern Europe ; but this idea was quickly dissi- 

 pated by an examination of the plants which composed the 

 sward, namely Hedysarum capitatum and Plantago Serruria, 

 mingled with Orchis coriophora in flower. 



M. Hanselaer, who has lived nearly nine years at Estepona, 

 discovered on these hills a quadruped, new to Europe ; the 

 Viverra Ichneumon, hitherto considered to be confined to 

 Egypt and some few spots in Barbary. He saw it in burrows ; 

 the country people call it Meloncillo. The more we explore 

 this southern region, the more numerous will the analogies 

 be found between it and northern Africa; a circumstance 

 quite to be expected, from the similarity of climate and tem- 

 perature. Everything seems to prove that the two conti- 

 nents were formerly joined together, where the Straits of 

 Gibraltar now sever them, and that an inland sea, which 

 filled the place of the central plains of the Peninsula, divided 

 those regions from the remainder of Europe. 



(To be continued.) 



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