490 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
often graced with huge coats-of-arms and heraldic bearings 
above the doors, had a wholly different air from the sea- 
coast towns, and indicated much dissimilarity in the manners 
and habits of its population. We made but a brief halt 
at Igualeja, for my guide was suspicious of the inhabitants 
of the Sierra, and the approaching fair caused a great influx 
of travellers; so, reminding me often that we had still three 
leagues to go, he pressed onwards, with the plea that we 
should thus avoid any ambuscade which thieves might send 
forwards, to waylay us on the journey. I yielded to his 
remonstrance, and we scaled, with fresh courage, the bare 
mountain which separated us from Ronda. | 
By the road-side, grew many interesting plants, and 
particularly a new species of Reseda; but every brief halt 
elicited the lamentations of my guide, who watched des- 
pairingly the closing of the day, and repeatedly assured me 
that he would not be answerable for the consequences of my 
delay. Presently we encountered, in the middle of the 
defile, à mounted party returning from the town: my guide 
exchanged a few words with the leading horseman, a robust ! 
and fresh-looking fellow, wearing the garb of a mago; — 
and his countenance instantly assumed a more contented E 
aspect: he assured me there was nothing to fear, I might DM 
gather plants till midnight if I would, for the valiente whom — 
we had met bore such a character for courage, that his a 
having traversed the road was sufficient to clear it from —. 
any suspicious characters, Now, the personage whom we —— 
had seen was the richest inhabitant of the village of Igualeja — 
. and probably also headed a party of smugglers, his well-known $e 
. reputation for personal bravery having gained for him, 1n- 
this semi-civilized land, all the notoriety and esteem attached | 
to a condottiére of the Middle Ages. e- s Bt 
_ "The mountains we were now traversing presented, I thought, 
~ many points in common with the Jura. In the platiorm» 
~ which occupied the highest portion, I noticed that the hori- 
~ "zontal and denuded layers were often similarly cleft into broat 
crevices, about two feet deep. There the inhabitants of | 
