RAMBLE IS THE N. OF SPAIN. 119 



cularly good station for botany. Besides Sionethis, Teucriimi py- 

 renaicum, and some other plants before enumerated, I got LatJircea 

 clandestina, Anarrhinum belUdifolium, Lactuca tenerrima, Ononis 

 mollis, Linum hirsutum, Orohus sylvaticus, Quercus puhescens, 

 Sisymbrium austriacum, var. acutifolium, and Arenaria montana, 

 all of which would probably be found about Las Caldas. 



Leaving Las Corales, we again ascend the course of the Bisaya 

 through another gorge penetrating a very hard sandstone, which 

 again opens into another valley, and from this a third and more 

 magnificent gorge leads us to E-einosa. The proposed railroad is to 

 pass through the two lower defiles ; but the upper ascends too 

 rapidly (1 in 17) for a railroad to follow it, and it will have to 

 make a wide circuit. I observed a Gacalia and two or three other 

 alpine or subalpine plants on some wet rocks in this upper gorge, 

 probably brought down by the torrent, for we are far from having 

 reached an elevation to account for their presence. 



Eeinosa is 3000 feet above the Bay of Biscay. The highest 

 springs of the Bisaya are within two miles from it ; but the town 

 stands on the Ebro, whose nominal source is about five miles 

 distant. I say nominal, because it appears to me that in this, and 

 some other cases, a copious and permanent spring receives the 

 honour of the name, while in fact the highest waters are several 

 miles distant. The highest waters of the Ebro are, I apprehend, 

 to be sought for in one of the snowy Sierras which we see from 

 Santander, and probably in the highest of them, the Sierras Albas, 

 though I am not sure that we see these from Eeinosa. The most 

 conspicuous of those we do see are the Sierras Sejos, which are 

 real craggy mountains, retaining a good deal of snow at the be- 

 ginning of July even on their southern faces. The hills imme- 

 diately about Eeinosa have rounded forms much like those of our 

 Sussex chalk hills, but on a larger scale. Even these retained 

 some patches of snow all through the month of June. 



The general appearance of the vegetation at Eeinosa is very dif- 

 ferent from that at Santander, and the climate is very different ; 

 very cold in the winter with immense quantities of snow, while 

 the summer is hot from the unclouded sunshine. My first walk 

 was to some low, but somewhat rocky, hills near the railway sta- 

 tion. Here I gathered Ophrys lutea, Scandicc australis, and a 

 beautiful blue Linum, which, however, I found in much greater 

 perfection in my walk the next day on the north side of Eeinosa. 

 It is, as well as I can make out, Linum reflexum of Hort. Kew. ; 

 though the reflexed lower leaves do not form a constant character. 



