282 MR. J. BALL’S SPICILEGIUM FLORE MAROCCAN#. 
all but impossible to strangers. The fine peaks of the Beni 
Hassan, within sight of the rock of Gibraltar and easy reach of 
Tangier and Tetuan, have never been approached by a traveller ; 
and Sir John Drummond Hay, whose knowledge of the people 
and influence amongst them surpass that of any other European, 
pronounced against the feasibility of the excursion which we 
earnestly desired to make in that direction. 
As a necessary consequence of what has been stated, our know- 
ledge of the Flora of Marocco has been extremely limited, and, in 
spite of what has been done during the last few years, is still most 
imperfect ; and the time is yet distant when it will be possible to 
give more than a rude outline of the relations between the vege- 
table population and those of the surrounding regions. 
The earliest notice that I have found of botanical research into 
the Marocco Flora is in the ‘ Istoria Botanica’ of Zanoni (Cura- 
tor of the Botanic Garden at Bologna), published in 1675. He 
had received plants and seeds from Tangier from a Mr. Alexander 
Balaam, who appears to have been a merchant trading with 
Tangier during some part of the time when that town was held 
by the Portuguese and the English. The next contribution, and 
amore considerable one, is contained in a list published (1696) in 
the 19th vol. of the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ (p. 289 et seq.), 
but drawn up in 1673 by Mr. Spotswood, a surgeon who lived there 
during the English occupation, and gathered plants which he gave 
to the same Mr. Balaam and to Dr. Morison at Oxford There 
is some difficulty in identifying many of the species named; and I 
have not thought it worth while to cite the plants contained in 
Mr. Spotswood’s list. : 
After the evacuation of Tangier by the English, under circum- 
stances little creditable to our national honour, communication 
between Europe and Marocco became more unfrequent than ever, 
and, excepting some occasional negotiation for the release of 
Christian captives, seems to have almost ceased. At the latter 
end of the last century relations between some European powers 
and the Marocco Government became more frequent and almost 
amicable, so that travelling in the country seems to have been 
easier than it has been in more recent times. A French botanist, 
M. Broussonnet, who also visited the Canary Islands and some 
parts of Spain, spent some time in Marocco during the last ten 
years of the century. He explored the neighbourhood of Moga- 
dor and Tangier, visited several of the ports on the Atlantic coast, 
