Botanical Notices from Spain. 343 



Ajuga Pseudo-iva, DC, Lepidium suhulatum, L., the elegant Helian- 

 themum sguamatum, P., and the remarkable Ononis crassifolia, Duf., 

 and also Artemisice, Chenopodice, and Saholacea. 



The northern and eastern margin of this broad basin, which still 

 belongs to the province of Granada, is formed by the lofty limestone 

 range of the province of Almeria, whose average height is about 

 6000 feet, and whose branches stretch into the neighbouring king- 

 dom of Murcia. Close to the boundaries of the kingdoms of Gra- 

 nada, Jaen and Murcia, lies the highest point of this many-branched 

 chain, the Sagra de Huescar, nearly 8000 feet high, an immense 

 conical limestone mountain, which is connected by a low thickly- 

 wooded mountain-chain with three lofty limestone chains running 

 west and east, the Sierra de Maria, Sierra de Velez-Blanco, and Sierra 

 de Oria. The most important of these three mountain-chains, in a 

 botanical point of view, is the Sierra de Maria, which, according to 

 the trigonometrical measurement of Clemente, is nearly 7000 feet 

 high ; it takes its name from the hamlet of Maria lying at its north- 

 eastern foot, where I staid for a week. This descends, like all 

 mountain-chains going parallel to it, towards the north in steep 

 rocks, and is covered on its northern base with woods of Pinus Pi- 

 naster, in which Cistus laurifolius, L., Helianthemum halimifolium, 

 Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi, Salvia officinalis and other shrubs occur in 

 great profusion. Of herbaceous plants, I found in these woods 

 Vincetoxicum nigrum, Schult., Teucrium Webbianum, Boiss., Nepeta 

 Nepetella, DC, Rubia Tinctorum, L., Bunium Macuca, Boiss., Cen- 

 taur ea granatensis, Boiss., in plenty ; more rarely Telephium Imperati, 

 L., and Dictamnus Fraxinella, L. In the shady rocky valleys of this 

 side, especially in the romantic Barranco Agrio, stretching up into 

 the alpine region, I again met with some alpine trees of the Sierra 

 Nevada, namely Lonicera arborea, Boiss., Sorbus Aria, L., and ^cer 

 opulifolium, ViU., under whose shade on moist loose rocky soil Ge- 

 ranium lucidum, L., Smyrnium perfoliatum. Mill., and other umbellife- 

 rous plants, as well as the beautiful Scopolina atropoides, Schult., grew 

 in luxuriant profusion. The clefts of the rugged limestone rocks of the 

 alpine region were filled with thick beds of numerous alpine plants ; 

 amongst others, the delicate Stachys circinnata, L'Her, Hypericum 

 Ericoides, L., just beginning to flower, Hieracium saxatile, Vahl., a 

 beautiful and perhaps new Globularia with woody stem and coriaceous, 

 stiff, thorny- serrate leaves, an Arenaina with ellipticfil, grayish-green, 

 almost succulent leaves and large white flowers, forming much inter- 

 laced and fragile patches, a stemless, white, woolly Centaurea with 

 orange-coloured flowers, a Silene, and many others ; and at the foot 

 of the same rocks I observed Senecio quinqueradiatus , Boiss., Rumex 

 pulcher, L., and the beautiful Andryala Agardhii, Boiss., in full flower. 

 In shady clefts of the highest rocks I found Eri?ius alpinus, L., Ptilo- 

 trichum longicaule, Boiss., and a splendid Saxifraga, growing in most 

 luxuriant beds, with large blossoms and succulent, serrate, viscous 

 leaves ; also on the highest ridges Erodium trichoman(£folium, L'Her., 

 AnthyllisWebbiana,Y{o6k., Sideritis scordioides, L., var. vestita, Boiss., 

 Arenaria tetraquetra, L., and a number of alpine shrubs, as Ptilotri- 



