Scrub 



(in Europe), the scrub changes into temperate forests or 

 on hillsides into pinewood. 



But where there is a long dry summer, the ground 

 is usually covered by either : — 



(i) Maqui y which is a close thicket about 5 to 7 

 feet high, composed chiefly of Erica arborea (of which 

 our u briar-root " pipes are made), with hard-leaved ever- 

 green shrubby oaks, mastic, and many other shrubs. 



(2) Gum-cistus, fairly close bushes of sticky Cistus, and 

 other plants 3 to 4 feet high. 



(3) Scented Labiates, placed apart from one another 

 and 2 to 3 feet high, with quantities of other scattered 

 shrubs, and especially with many beautiful asphodels and 

 other bulbs. 



(4) Small spiny bushes (garigue), usually less than 2 

 feet in height, and distantly scattered over a specially 

 dry and stony soil. 



One special characteristic of them all is that, in the 

 whole series, all the typical and commonest plants either 

 cannot be eaten by any animal under any circumstances, 

 or are just edible when a goat or a donkey is starving 

 and driven to extremities. 



This fact gives a great probability to the theory held 

 by several continental botantists that these various types 

 of vegetation are nothing but the persistent undergrowth 

 of what were once forests of cork-oak, of chestnut, or 

 of some of the Mediterranean pines. 



Such woods still exist in a few rare places. Dr. 

 Willkomm describes them as exceedingly beautiful and 

 even luxuriant. The trees of Queicus ilex, Q. lusita- 

 nica, and wild olive are covered with dark-green moss 

 or hung with lichens as the whitish grey tassels of Usnea 

 barbata, or the reddish-yellow and grey of Alectoria. 

 There are plenty of ferns such as Davallia. Along the 

 streams are huge alders, great Celtis' and bay trees 



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