Botanical Notices from Spain. 191 



Before speaking of the environs of Malaga, I will endeavour briefly 

 to describe the rich and interesting vegetation of the lofty mountains 

 of Yunquera, which I had an opportunity of investigating during a 

 sojourn of several days at the end of April. The little town of Yun- 

 quera lies in an almost circular expanse, surrounded by one of the 

 branches of the Serrania, close to the foot of the steep mountain of 

 the same name. From the mountains of Ronda a branch runs in a 

 north-eastern direction as far as the Guadalhorce, which bounds the 

 wide valley of Yunquera north and east, and forms between this 

 place and the river two parallel chains of 5000 to 6000 feet high, 

 bearing the names of Sierra Blanquilla and Sierra Prieta. Both 

 these chains consist of limestone, and are remarkable for their ste- 

 rility and nakedness. In one of the valleys running in a southern 

 direction lies the village of Alozaina, through which the road leads 

 from Malaga to Yunquera, and is separated from the Guadalhorce 

 by an undulating hilly land. In these hills I observed large tracts 

 wholly overgrown by Convolvulus tricolor, L., C. undulatus, Cav., and 

 Lavatera trimestris, L. ; on dry stones, plots of grass, and under 

 shrubs in sunny spots blossomed Cleonia lusitanica, L., Salvia viridis, 

 L., Teucrium pseudo-chamcepitysy L., Asperula hirsuta, Desf., Micro- 

 meria grceca, Bth., (d. latifolia, Boiss. ; in corn-fields Ornithogalum 

 narbonncnse, L., and a Phalaris ; and by the road-side Galactites to- 

 mentosa, Ormenis mixta, DC, Micropus supinus, L., Plantago Serra- 

 ria, L., P. albicans, L., &c. Upon w^alls and rocks at Alozaina the 

 pretty blue-flowered Umbilicus hispidus, DC, is very common, as also 

 on the rocks in the valleys of the Sierra Prieta, which the road 

 crosses. In shady places we meet with isolated specimens of Saro- 

 thamnus affinis, Boiss. (Cyiisus affinis, Brot.). Near Yunquera is a 

 rocky eminence, upon which stands an old watch-tower, one of the 

 few habitats of the rare Digitalis laciniata, Lindl., which unfortunately 

 was not yet in flower. Here, and throughout all the rocky district 

 of Yunquera, the pretty large-blossomed Erodium guttatum, W., is 

 found plentifully. In the same undeveloped state as Digitalis laci- 

 niata I met with two of Boissier's choice plants, namely Linaria 

 Clementei and Salvia Candelabrum, which occur at the foot and in 

 the lowest part of the Sierra, and whose stems were just beginning 

 to shoot. 



The first excursion which t made from Yunquera led me into the 

 lowest parts of the mountain, toward the nacimiento of the Rio 

 Grande. By this is understood the issuing forth of an entire river 

 directly from a cavern in the rock, — the only rivulet of any import- 

 ance in the whole mountain- chain of Yunquera, which is unusually 

 destitute of water. Through a rocky side-valley, watered by the 

 stream on which the little town stands, we enter on the romantic 

 Barranco del Nacimiento, hemmed in on all sides by picturesque 

 rocks, in the depths of which the water of the Rio Grande, con- 

 stantly interrupted in its course by immense blocks of marble, ap- 

 parently loses itself in milk-white foam. At the mouth of the rivulet 

 of Yunquera is a spinning- manufactory belonging to the apothecary 

 of the town, and this spot is the only locality for the rare Scrophularia 



