648 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
answer, nor enable them to compete with the American 
sugar. 
The houses at Motril are but one story high, flat roofed, 
and covered inside and out with a thick layer of dazzlingly 
white chalk. Not a trace of windows could be seen, the 
mild climate rendering them needless; air and light pervade 
alike these Pra esie the richest of which are adorned with 
balconies, full of pinks, mesembryanthemums, and the 
brighest flowers that blow 
The description in Don tate had prepared me for the 
kind of posada, which, passing through ill-paved, tortuous 
streets, awaited us, so that I felt no surprize at seeing the 
dilapidated room and scanty furniture, consisting of a table 
and some ordinary stools, which formed all the accommoda- 
tion of this place of refreshment. The general aspect and 
costume of the people recalled to me that of the Neapolitans, 
and it was striking to mark the similarity of manners, too, 
that exists between these inhabitants of peninsulas, situated 
under the same latitudes. In the market were sold sugar- 
canes, canas dulces, cut into strips, for eating fresh ; they 
contain, in their pith, an abundant and refreshing juice, of 
which the molasses flavour quickly cloys on the palate. 
Issuing from Motril in the direction of the mountains, I 
found myself suddenly involved in a perfect copse of Indian 
figs, stretching wide their impervious bushes and giving an 
rican aspect to the country. In Barbary, whence this plant 
was introduced to Spain, the Opuntia vulgaris grows truly 
wild. The Arabs are excessively fond of its fruit, and cull it 
by means of a cleft reed, enabling them to reach it without 
being hurt by the thorns. A few minutes’ walk brought me 
into a perfect solitude ; there was not a trace of cultivation or 
inhabitant; nothing but arid hills, tracked by a few paths, 
only practicable to beasts of burthen, but which yet afford 
the sole means of communication with the interior. To the 
right rose the lofty mountain, called the Sierra de Lujar, and 
in the background I discovered with delight the icy peaks 
of the much desired Sierra Nevada, the Picacho de Ve- 
