Scrub 



ceives it, and it is promptly assimilated. Even young 

 and still more or less soft thorns are promptly devoured. 

 Nor are the very roots safe, for a litter of hungry pigs 

 will systematically root up and devour the underground 

 runners and rootlets of any edible plant. 



So to any one who has botanised in other countries, 

 the appearance of the ground in the open or between 

 the stems of the maqui or of the cistus seems very 

 strange, peculiar, and unnatural. It looks very dry 

 and terribly bare, with white stones glaring in the sun, 

 and small thorny bushes here and there. But when 

 this desert-like character has impressed itself on the 

 mind, some vigorous Salvia or Ocimum or Cistus, and 

 perhaps a tiny grass-seedling or two, proves that it is 

 not in the least like a desert. 



Even the very Charlocks, Polygonums, and other 

 weeds of cultivation are carefully saved up to feed those 

 goats which, with tinkling bells, climb up the Spanish 

 tenements' stairs to be milked on the purchaser's 

 threshold. 



It is in the Balearic Islands, which have a large popula- 

 tion and a limited area, that some of these goat-effects 

 are most impressive. There one finds a complex tangle 

 of sharp woody thorns, quite 2 inches long, which is 

 Asparagus horridus. Also pretty, green, mossy-looking 

 cushions, perhaps 4 or 5 feet in circumference, but 

 which on examination are found to bristle all over with 

 hard and acute spinose points. That is Astragalus 

 poterium. A curious instance of specialisation is a 

 fragile little vetch, Vicia bifoliata, which insinuates itself 

 amongst these Astragalus plants and is protected from 

 the goat by their armature.* 



In the Mediterranean generally there is plenty of 

 bare ground, and probably not so much competition of 

 plant with plant as is usual in Europe. The dangers 



311 



