250 Botanical Notices from Spain. 



cum cruciatum, Sieb., with yellowish red berries, as well as here 

 and there upon the banks luxuriant shrubs of Viburnum Tinus, with 

 young blossoms. On the second day I reached the little town of 

 Yunquera, lying at the foot of the lofty Sierra de la Nieve, to which 

 I made an excursion on the 3rd of December, in spite of the violent 

 rain and snow, which had set in the night before, in order to see the 

 Abies Pinsapo, Boiss., and Quercus alpestris, Boiss. The first I met 

 with at a height of 5000 feet, but arrived unfortunately too late, for 

 the cones had long fallen off and lay quite withered upon the ground. 

 The Pinsapo has the growth of the Scotch fir, but with respect to the 

 bark and position of the branches it resembles the spruce fir, from 

 which it is however very remarkably distinguished by the peculiarly 

 short and thickly- set needles. I cannot say with certainty whether I 

 have found the Quercus alpestris. Boissier remarks, that this oak grew 

 in company with the Pinsapo. There are however two species of 

 oak frequent here, one of which with evergreen leaves appears to be 

 no other than the Qu. Ilex. The other, whose leaves had fallen off, 

 may be the Qu. alpestris ; but both had quite lost their fruit. In 

 the shade of the adjacent rocks of marble a small Iberis blossomed 

 in abundance, the only one which this excursion yielded ; I returned 

 to Yunquera wet through to the skin and half- killed by the cutting 

 cold wind. On Wednesday the 4th of December I started again, 

 and after passing through a part of the lonely, wild and rough Ser- 

 rania de Ronda, I arrived in the evening at the town of Ronda. The 

 above-mentioned mountain, which at this season of the year presents 

 nothing except species of Ulex (not yet in flower), although in its 

 proper season it is one of the richest mountains in plants of Anda- 

 lusia, is almost wholly covered with low bushes, chiefly of Pistacia 

 Lentiscus, P. Terebinthus, Rhamnus Alaternus, Rh. lycioides, Olea 

 europcRa, var. sylvestris, Juniperus Oxycedrus, J. phoenicea. Daphne 

 Gnidium and Quercus cocci/era, as well as a number of Cisti, The 

 large and beautifully situated town of Ronda is in summer one of 

 the pleasantest spots in Andalusia, but in winter it is the coldest 

 point, as on the following morning all the ditches and water- 

 courses were covered with ice an inch thick and the fields with 

 hoar-frost, — which is something extraordinary in this country. As 

 soon however as we had passed one of the chains of hills covered 

 with thick oak-woods, in which I noticed among others many spe- 

 cies of Helianthemum, of course still without blossom, and had en- 

 tered upon the broad and cheerful valley of the Rio Guadalete, I 

 found myself at once in another and warm climate, in which a per- 

 petual spring reigns. The banks of the above-mentioned river are 

 mostly surrounded with the thickest bushes, 12 feet high, of Pistacia 

 Lentiscus and Nerium Oleander, encircling whose branches a beautiful 

 Atragene (?) occurred here and there in full blossom. In this valley 

 I also found for the first time between groups of palms some few 

 specimens of the odoriferous Iris scorpioides, Desf., which I have 

 subsequently observed at Seville on loamy declivities, on the right 

 bank of the Guadalquivir in great quantity and in full blossom. 

 Between the villages of Algodonales and Puerto- Serranos, where I 



