BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 643 
crags; but I was not sufficiently certain of their stability, to 
undertake such a perilous ascent, where a slip would in- 
fallibly cause me to fall some hundred of feet into the rolling 
ocean beneath. The exact purpose for which these cords are 
so placed, I was then ignorant of, but found it afterwards 
explained in the Description of the Kingdom of Valencia by 
Cavanilles. In his time, and long before it, this rock of Hifac, 
being well adapted by its height and situation to serve as a 
watch-tower, was so used by the peasants, who were wont to 
look out from its summit for the Barbary pirates, and thence 
to communicate the alarm to the neighbourhood. The peo- 
ple climbed by these ropes, and drew up also their provisions, 
then taking the ropes along with them, they thus cut off all 
means of communication, and were perfectly safe in their im- 
pregnable position. 
In the clefts of the rock sprung splendid tufts of a woody 
Hippocrepis, observed here also by Cavanilles ; at first I 
thought it was H. Balearica, but have since found it new: also 
Succovia Balearica, which here, as at Gibraltar, delights in 
damp and shady spots ; with Scabiosa saxatilis (Cav.) in great 
abundance, though not yetin flower. Rounding the mountain 
and passing under the ruined and ivy-covered walls of an old 
castle abutting on the rock, and formerly destroyed by the Ge- 
noese, I reached the southern ascent, where I was equally 
baffled in my attempt to attain the summit, but had consi- 
derable amends in the splendid ed which was much 
forwarder than on the north side. The lofty slopes were 
graced with elegant festoons of the pink-flowered Fagonia 
Cretica; Rhamnus oleoides, Euphorbia rupicola (Boiss.) and 
other shrubs sprang from the chinks ; and Astragalus macro- 
rhizus, (Cav.) with some other Leguminose, covered the clayey 
spots. There I beheld, for the first time, magnificent Indian 
Figs, whose woody and irregularly tortuous stems, give a most 
peculiar appearance to the landscape. Seated beneath these 
trees, and inhaling with delight the sweet and balmy air, I 
was thinking what a boon is existence itself, under this serene 
Sky and lovely climate, when a glance at the waves, which 
