A FLORA OF GIBRALTAR AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD HI 



July to October comparatively few species have their normal 

 flowering period, though quite a considerable number linger on 

 till November. But the number of succulent and really heat- 

 resisting species is few, and in the summer the whole country 

 assumes an arid and burnt-up aspect, and with few exceptions, 

 flowering plants must then be sought in shady spots and water- 

 courses. 



Historical Sketch of the Botany. 

 When I undertook this work, I had no intention of_ doing 

 more than cataloguing the species already enumerated in the 

 local Floras, with the addition of those found by myself ; but 

 since the body of the book went to press, I found more leisure for 

 studying the records of the earlier botanists, and have been 

 struck by the number of species recorded by them which have 

 been disregarded by later writers, and consequently not embodied 

 by me. At the same time it must be borne in mind that few 

 botanists have drawn any hard and fast line between the flora of 

 the Eock proper and that of the surrounding country, and the 

 difficulty of assigning to the North Front its proper records is 

 increased by the ambiguous references to the Neutral Ground. 

 It is also clear that modern writers have incorrectly referred 

 many species to the Eock which were never collected there, nor 

 were even stated by their recorders to have been found there. 

 This is especially the case with Colmeiro, who assigns nearly all 

 Kelaart's records for the neighbourhood, as well as many of those 

 of the older collectors, to "Gibraltar," including the very untrust- 

 worthy and unintelligible ones of Talbot {i.e. James), which are 

 dealt with later. Hence I am unable to make use of the 

 citations of this author, which contain other obvious errors. 



The Eock. 



The following is a list of the principal collectors and their 

 records for the Eock, compiled from their own writings and 

 from such of the citations of Willkomm and Lange, Kelaart, 

 Debeaux and Perez Lara as appear likely to be correct. A few 

 records are assigned to Lamarck, Cavanilles, Jussieu, and others, 

 even to Linnaeus : I do not think any of these ever visited the 

 Eock, but cite specimens they have seen. 



I have given the lists as I find them, merely substituting, 

 where possible, modern for ancient nomenclature, though in 

 doing so there may be danger of misinterpreting synonymy. I 

 have not, however, repeated in later lists species recorded in 

 earlier ones, except in cases where they tend to confirm otherwise 

 doubtful I'ecords. It will be apparent that many mistakes in 

 naming have been made, or that many species have disappeared 

 from the Eock. I strongly incline to the former view, and have 

 consequently made many exclusions, shown by square brackets. 

 Some of these are of plants known to be found only on the 

 Neutral Ground, which would doubtless have been recorded as 

 " Gibraltar." A few of the records serve to corroborate species 

 I had already excluded, while others, shown in round brackets, 



