182 Botanical Notices from Spain. 



not met with it, although 1 have often taken a boat on the lake on 

 purpose to look for it. 



No. II. Valencia, end of May 1844. 

 Sierra de Chiva. 



The Sierra de Chiva, so called from the market-town of Chiva, 

 situated four leagues north of Valencia, like all the mountains of 

 the kingdom of Valencia, belongs to the limestone formation, and 

 indeed is chiefly composed of Muschelkalk. It consists of a number 

 of parallel mountain ridges extending from west to east, which are 

 divided by deep cross-valleys (in Spain called Barrancos) ; it is of 

 very considerable breadth, and rises gradually to a height of 6000 

 feet from the great plain, which is bounded eastward by the Sierra 

 de Murviedro, westward by the Sierra de Cullera and other moun- 

 tains, and is traversed by the Rio Turia. This thinly inhabited, but 

 very romantic mountain district was, it is said, in former times co- 

 vered with dense pine-forests, of which remain only isolated trees of 

 Pinus Halepensis, Mill., and another species of Conifer called by the 

 people Pino Roveno, which however is said to be very rare (I have 

 only seen one low shrub of it). At present the whole of this moun- 

 tainous region is entirely bare, or only covered by a low underwood, 

 which at different heights is composed of different species of plants. 

 The highest peaks want even this, and especially on the north and 

 east aspects, where the moist cliffs are clothed with grasses and her- 

 baceous vegetables. True meadows however are wholly absent here. 

 The whole mountain tract is uncommonly dry ; even in the valleys 

 we find a little brook but rarely ; although there is no want of springs 

 on the declivities, their water wholly evaporates before it can reach 

 the bottom of the valleys. The cause of this is, the very elevated tem- 

 perature produced by the reflexion of the sun's rays from the white 

 limestone rocks which form the walls of the valleys. Hence the ve- 

 getation in the valleys is far more scanty than on the slopes of the 

 higher mountains ; and even where a brook runs through the valley, 

 the banks are overspread with a broad deposit of sand and pebbles, 

 devoid of vegetation, which makes its first appearance at the foot of 

 the slope bordering the valley. From the investigations of the con- 

 dition of vegetation which I was enabled to make during my fort- 

 night's sojourn in this mountain district, I am inclined to admit the 

 five following regions in the Sierra de Chiva, which may perhaps be 

 applicable to the other mountains of the province of Valencia ; I will 

 endeavour to describe their vegetation as briefly as possible. 



1. Lower warm region, to a height of about 500 feet, characterized 

 by the culture of Ceratonia Siliqua, L., and the presence of Agave 

 americana, L., and Cactus Opuntia, L. — To this region belong the 

 immediate environs of Chiva, Cheste and Buiiol, as also the plains 

 and outlets of the valleys at the foot of the Sierra. Besides the al- 

 ready-mentioned St. John's bread-tree, olive, fig, and mulberry trees 

 are universally cultivated, also wheat, hemp, maize, and in hilly 



