112 MR. JOSEPH wood's notes or a BOTAmCAL 



list of those worth notice, but the weather was adverse to our 

 researches. 



The neighbourhood of Santander at first disappointed me, per- 

 haps rather because there was not what I expected in the character 

 of the vegetation, than from any absolute paucity of species. The 

 hedges and general appearance of the country seemed very much 

 like what we may see in England. A further examination, how- 

 ever, in a great degree corrected that impression. In the hedges 

 we find Laurus nohilis and Phillyrea media, the latter very abun- 

 dantly ; and the banks are almost everywhere covered with Scro- 

 pJiularia Scorodonia, while Smilax aspera scrambles over the 

 bushes. On the flowering branches the leaves have narrow divi- 

 sions, while in those more distant from the flowers, the lobes 

 assume the rounded form usually attributed to S. mauritanica. 

 There are many rough bits of ground by road-sides, and some open 

 spaces which might be called heaths. The largest of these seems 

 doomed to perpetual barrenness from the custom of paring off" the 

 turf and carrying it away for fuel. In the others we meet with 

 the Babcecia and the Lithospermum already mentioned, and with 

 Erica vagans and Euphorbia verrucosa. Euphorbia procera and 

 E. stricta are also common about Santander : Euphorbia platy- 

 phylla is less plentiful. On these heaths are many spots of 

 springy ground, adorned with several of our own more common 

 bog plants, — Sypericum Elodes, Anagallis tenella, Narthecium os- 

 sifragum, &c., but no Drosera, and no Pinguicula. Cyperus longus 

 is common. Car ex punctata occurs in one or two places, and Aspho- 

 delics albus seems to prefer these moist situations. I found a 

 Carex near my own residence at Fuente del Mar, which I at first 

 put down as C. genuensis, but after a careful examination of dif- 

 ferent authors, I am inclined to consider G. genuensis as a non- 

 entity, or at any rate a plant which it is impossible to identify. 

 The one in question is probably a form of C. glauca, from which it 

 differs in its larger size, the rounder and less pointed glumes of 

 the fertile spikes, and by the rougher fruit. The spikes are erect, 

 the fertile ones somewhat compound, the barren ones three or four 

 in number, but these circumstances are occasionally found in C. 

 glauca. Other plants not very common in England are, Scilla 

 verna, Vicia bithynica, and Lathyrus Nissolia ; and there are two 

 or three plants not rare with us, which nevertheless may deserve 

 notice. Anthyllis vulneraria is very common, but invariably with 

 purple flowers. Daucus Carota abounds in all the meadows ; it 

 is white-rooted, and I think the same as our English species, 



