GIBRALTAR. 243 
Palms, a few Agaves, &c. From the top, a narrow ridge about 
1400 feet high, we obtained a glorious prospect both of the 
Spanish and African coasts. The descent on the east is a sheer 
precipice down to the sea, all but perpendicular; and nothing 
grows, at least at this season, among the confused masses of lime- 
stone, of which it, in common with the rest of the rock, consists. 
On the west side, by which we ascended, I observed, besides the 
Agave and Dwarf Fan-Paim, an introduced Aloe, Asparagus, some 
Labiate, and a pretty species of Arum. The Palmetto, or Dwarf 
Fan-Palm, was to me the most interesting among this stinted vege- 
tation; not merely because it is the only European Palm, but 
because it is the most northern species of the genus, as my old 
friend, the New Zealand Palmetto, is the most southern species 
known. Of the Zubiate there were several kinds, but none either 
in flower or fruit. The Phytolacca,* for which I sought particu- 
larly, is not to be seen on the wild parts of the rock, but it grows, 
apparently cultivated, in the gardens about the town. It forms a 
very handsome, leafy, rounded and massy looking tree, with a 
stout trunk, and rather short spreading branches; and appears, 
specifically, the same as that which I observed in the Island of 
Ascension, where it grows with such wonderful rapidity. I had 
seen a solitary Phytolacca at Cintra, but did not then recognize it. 
To have obtained, as I much wished, a section of the stem, for the 
Museum at Kew, was impossible: the trees are jealously guarded 
by soldiers, and -in the public gardens it is prohibited to touch 
and pluck a plant, as with you at Kew. If we had stayed longer 
at Gibraltar, (but after spending six hours on the rock we returned 
to the “Sidon,” ) I could easily have procured the Phytolacca 
from a private garden. Its general aspect reminds me of the 
* Phytolacca dioica, an arborescent species of Poke-weed, native of Buenos Ayres, 
but introduced into Europe by the Spaniards and Portuguese, It is remarkable for 
the softness of its wood. “Il est,” says M. Bory de St. Vincent, “un assez grand 
et fort bel arbre, dont le tronc cependant conserve une mollesse herbacée, telle qu'on 
peut le couper comme on ferait d’une enorme Carrotte; il a été des longtems transporté 
et forme à Seville une partie de la promenade publique le long du Guadalquivir, près 
= pont de Triana. A la forme des feuilles et à la hauteur de plusieuss individus, on 
dirait des Peupliers,"- Ep. : 
