Bibliographical Notices. 419 



are cultivated, but on the other hand there is a very rich collection 

 of Cacti and succulent plants, especially from the West Indies, 

 Mexico and South America. The botanical museum is in the garden, 

 and the lower part of this contains a spacious, very elegant theatre 

 for the lectures on botany and agriculture ; in the upper story are 

 the botanical library with the herbaria, as well as a room for a col- 

 lection of models and instruments of husbandry, woods and the like, 

 which is yet but insignificant, but for the enlargement of which the 

 present Professor of Agriculture, D. Pascual Asensio, labours with 

 great zeal. The richly bound botanical library contains but few new 

 works ; however, the herbaria of Cavanilles, Ruiz, Pavon and others 

 are here, the first of which I studied particularly. From deficiency 

 of funds, the Madrid garden is in correspondence with no foreign 

 gardens except those of Paris and Montpellier. During my sojourn 

 in Madrid, 1 made a day and a half's excursion to the famous Escu- 

 rial, situated at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama, less for the 

 sake of botanizing than to see this palace so remarkable in historical 

 associations. From this excursion however to the richly watered, 

 in part well-wooded, granitic Sierra, next to the Sierra Nevada and 

 the Pyrenees the highest mountain of Spain, some parts being at 

 that time covered with snow, I am persuaded that it would well re- 

 pay a longer sojourn. In a single half-hour's excursion which I 

 made in the immediate vicinity of the Escurial, I found many inter- 

 esting plants, of which I may mention Ranunculus Carpetanus, Rent., 

 Dianthus laricifolius, Rent., Sedum gypsicolum, R., and Jasione ses- 

 silijlora, R. 



On the 6th of July I left Madrid and betook myself to Aranjuez, 

 from whence I think of setting out this evening towards Granada. 

 Well would it recompense a longer stay, since both the very luxu- 

 riant vegetation of the neighbouring shores of the Tagus and the sur- 

 rounding gypsum hills promise a rich harvest. Aranjuez is parti- 

 cularly remarkable for its woods. Giant planes, innumerable elms, 

 limes, beeches, oaks and other dicotyledonous trees, clothe for leagues 

 the shores of the stream, on which occur, among other plants, Hel- 

 minthia echioides and Chlora perfoliata, L. Kentrophyllum lanatum^ 

 DeC, Picnomon Acarna, DeC, Centaurea Calcitrapa, L., Carlina co- 

 rymhosa, L., are extremely frequent, in company with Heliotr opium 

 europceum, L., and Trihulus terrestris, L., on waste places, while the 

 neighbouring gypsum hills are clothed with Frankenia pulverulenta, 

 Mill., Machrochloa tenacissima, Kth., many Resedacea and Labiates . 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Contributions towards a Fauna and Flora of the County of Cork. 

 London, 1845. 8vo. 



The appearance of the first local fauna and flora of a part of Ireland 

 gives us great satisfaction, since we trust that it will soon be fol- 

 lowed by similar accounts of other parts of the island, and that thus 



