Botanical Notices from Spain, 1 1^ 



XIII. — Botanical Notices from Spain. By Moritz Willkomm*. 



[Continued from vol. xv. p. 419.] 



No. IV. Granada, August 12, 1844. 



Wearied with the view of the endless plains of the Mancha, which 

 present only an aspect of corn-fields and brown arid heath, here and 

 there broken by a copse of the Qucrcus Ilex or Pinus Pinea, I was 

 not a little delighted, when on the morning of the 10th of July I 

 descried the blue mountain-ranges of the Sierra Morena, the frontier 

 of the long-desired Andalusia. This long and wide chain of moun- 

 tains, which rises in gentle gradations to a height scarcely exceeding 

 6000 feet, is at this point almost wholly covered with copses of oak. 

 The rivulets, which are particularly numerous on the south side, 

 permeating the valleys, and emptying their waters into the Guadal- 

 quivir, give birth to a richer vegetation than I had hitherto observed 

 in the Spanish mountains, and were chiefly inclosed with flowering 

 oleanders, ash-trees and elms, interspersed with the vine, which grows 

 almost wild here, as in the lowest part of the Sierra Nevada, and 

 hangs in picturesque festoons from the tops of the trees down to the 

 ground. After traversing the celebrated Pass of Spinasperros, and 

 crossing many wide mountain-ridges, we arrive at the ancient Swabian 

 colonies of S^^ Helena and Carolina ; and the environs of these beau- 

 tiful localities, especially of Carolina, show the traveller, by their fer- 

 tility, that he has reached the happy land of Andalusia. Hedges of 

 Agave americana and Opuntia vulgaris, which surround the intermina- 

 ble fields of wheat, maize, hemp, beans, garbanzos ( Cicer arietinum, L. ), 

 tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum, Mill.), pimento (^Capsicum annuurriy 

 L.), plantations of mulberry-, olive-, almond- and vine-trees, which 

 extend to the banks of the Guadalquivir, recall to mind the fruitful 

 plains of Valencia. The extensive and very barren Sien-a de Jaen 

 separates the wide valley of the Guadalquivir from the noble Vega of 

 Granada, — the former so celebrated in history, which extends at the 

 foot of the Sierra Nevada, rising like an immense wall with snow- 

 capped summits to more than 11,000 feet in height, and bounded on 

 the west by the Sierra Tejeda and Sierra de Alhama. Although, in 

 the country around Granada, neither the date- and dwarf-palm, nor 

 the orange -hedges of Valencia are found, yet the vegetation bears a 

 far more southern character. I had nowhere before seen in Spain such 

 a luxuriant and almost tropical vegetation, not excepting even Aran- 

 juez, where it is evident that the cultivating hand of man has pro- 

 duced by artificial irrigation that rich growth of trees and plants of 

 all kinds which convert this spot into a charming oasis in the deserts 

 of New Castille. 



On one of the peninsular tracts of land formed by the small but 

 celebrated rivers of the Jenil and Darro lies the ancient royal city 

 of Granada, at the foot of the proud Alhambra, whose Moorish towers 

 crown the last off'shoot of the rocky wall which divides the valleys 



* Translated from the Botanische Zeitung, Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, 1814. 



