442 TKANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. Lxvni. 



and rosemary and myrtle ; while the undergrowth is often 

 of several species of Heliaiithemuni and labiates, sprinkled 

 with white flowers of Cyclamen halearicum, the " San Pera 

 Violet " of the natives. Here and there is a clump of the 

 curiously jointed Ephedra frayilis, a juniper, a pomegranate, 

 or a fig springing wild from clefts in the rock. Interesting 

 and beautiful as are all these, they are excelled in Minorca 

 by the plentiful and luxuriant Eaphorhia dendroides, a most 

 elegant bush when in bloom. The stem of this species is 

 quite woody, and sometimes a foot or more in circum- 

 ference. It rises in regularly three-forked branches into a 

 beautiful pale green hemisphere five or six feet high. The 

 largest trees are of Qmrcus Ilex. E.xposed to the constant 

 sea-gales, these are all bent and twisted to the southward 

 by the prevailing wind. Pinus halepensls is the only 

 native pine. Smaller and less picturesque than the 

 cultivated species, it yet affords a pleasing prospect from 

 the light green of its soft outspreading tufts of leaves. 



The mastic (Pistacia Leiitiscus) in the Balearics, as on 

 the Eiviera, forms as a mere bush the chief constituent of 

 the underwood. But a very old tree was pointed out to 

 us in Minorca as one of the largest in existence. Its 

 branches covered a space about thirty feet in diameter, 

 which would make it probably as large as the celebrated 

 tree at Bordighera. In cultivation, instead of clover-fields, 

 one sees great sheets of the vivid crimson flowers of 

 Hedysarum coronariwin, the Minorcan forage plant that has 

 been found well suited to a dry and windy climate. 



At Albufera we came to a large fresh-water lake, with 

 some brackish marsh between it and the sea. Here was 

 abundance of Leiccojicm Henvuidezii. We saw it later in 

 Majorca, but elsewhere it grows only in Sardinia. Xear 

 the water's edge were Sdicornia friUicosa, and Sucedcc 

 fruticosci ; and close at hand Lavatera crctica, Lotus creticits, 

 Melilotas mes^anensis, Vidct atropurpitriza, and Scrophidarla 

 ramosisnm%. On the shore were also some enormous 

 tamarisks of great age ; some of the trunks being ten to 

 twelve feet in circumference. One object of this day's 

 excursion was to obtain the Dctphne vellceoides, Eodrig., 

 abundant on the Isla Colom. Landing on that island from 

 a fisherman's boat we immediately came upon plenty of the 



