248 Botanical Notices from Spain. 



XXX. — Botanical Notices from Spain. By MoritzWillkomm*. 



[Continued from p. 192.] 



No. VII. Seville, December 30, 1844. 



On the 5th of November, after a continuance of the most dis- 

 agreeable rains for nearly four months, I quitted Granada and tra- 

 velled the next day to Malaga. From the incessantly rainy and 

 misty weather, I could see very little of the character of the vegeta- 

 tion from the diligence. The only specimens which I had not before 

 seen were some bushes of the cork- oak, which I noticed on the se- 

 cond day of my journey. The environs of Malaga, situated as it is 

 in a kind of paradise, — which in the spring is so rich in plants, — pre- 

 sented now little or nothing, although the surrounding hills began 

 already to be decked with fresh green and gave signs of approaching 

 spring. Scilla maritima, long faded, unfolded everywhere its broad 

 dark green leaves, in company with Asphodels ; but, with the excep- 

 tion of the ever-blossoming Alyssum maritimum, L., and some late 

 plants of Atractylis humilis, L., there was scarcely anything in 

 bloom to be remarked. The gardens presented more flowers than the 

 country around. Upon the balconies I saw frequently the splendid 

 Euphorbia heterophylla, in the gardens Datura fastuosa, Brugmansia 

 arhorea, Verbena citriodora. Plumbago zeylanica, Cestrum nocturnum, 

 Viola odorata. Calendula officinalis, &c., and roses in full bloom. In 

 a garden without the city I noticed several gigantic bushes of banana, 

 and a noble tree of Dracaena Draco 1 6 feet high, which grows here 

 quite as in its own climate. The Alameda of Malaga, a public pro- 

 menade, is planted with large trees of Gleditschia triacanthos, Melia 

 Azedarach, Phytolacca dioica'jind Acacia Farnesiana. In the environs 

 batatas and oranges are much grown, as well as Annona squamosa, 

 whose spicy and much-prized fruit is everywhere sold under the name 

 of Chirimoyas. 



As it was impossible, on account of the backward state of the sea- 

 son, to study the flora of Malaga from nature, I was greatly desirous 

 of being allowed to do this in the rich herbarium of the chemist Don 

 Pablo Prolongo, whose name is so well known from Boissier's ' Voy- 

 age ' : he is the only botanist at present in Malaga, and unfortu- 

 nately, from great occupation of his time, he is able to do little for 

 the natural history of his province. Don Prolongo has fortunately 

 also preserved a portion of the herbarium of M. Felix Hiinseler, 

 whose death three years ago deprived science of an able botanist ; 

 the other portion of his collection is lost. At the desire of Don 

 Prolongo, I undertook the agreeable task of putting in order his 

 herbarium, which was in great confusion ; and this gave me an op- 

 portunity of becoming generally acquainted with the character of 

 the vegetation of Malaga, which I hope to study from nature also 

 next April. Sometimes by myself, and sometimes accompanied by 

 my friend, I made many excursions in the environs of the city du- 



* Translated from the Botanische Zeitung, May 9, 1845. 



