Dec. 1903.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 443 



rare and beautiful little shrub, bearing small white liowers 

 low down upon the branches, and very evidently distinct 

 from all other daphnes. This reflection applies to all the 

 ]^>alearic rarities without exception. These endemic species 

 are remarkable for the strikingly decided characters that 

 separate them from their congeners. They indeed are 

 " species of the first order." Hardly had our boxes closed 

 upon the daphne twigs, than a fine Arum was sighted (A. 

 muscivorvm), — its spathe resembling a hog's ear, reddish, 

 and very hairy. Here also many bulbs of the great squill 

 {Urginca scilla) protruded from the scanty soil in all 

 directions, some as big as a child's head. I learnt that the 

 natives are well aware of the medicinal properties of squill, 

 and, moreover, have the practice of keeping a plant vipon 

 the staircase of each house as a charm against erysipelas. 

 Then appeared the proprietor of the island, a singular 

 figure. Clad in rags, rope sandals, and a battered straw hat, 

 he was yet monarch of all he surveyed on that lonely rock. 

 He was at pains to explain to us that our lovely Aram 

 was a pest in his domain, and how fortunate it was that 

 pigs would eat it, and indeed liked it. 



On the following day, by the kindness of a local land- 

 owner, we were enabled to visit the Barranco de Algendar. 

 Outside Mahon we met a fisherman running at full speed 

 with a heavy basket on his back, and were told that the 

 custom was always to run into town w^ith a catch, some- 

 times from ten miles out. Our guide remarked further 

 that his countrymen were a hardy race. The island, he 

 said, swept by cruel winds and lacking water, produced 

 barely enough to sustain the inhabitants. They therefore 

 could never make full use of their digestive apparatus, and 

 as most diseases, he believed, arose from keeping it too 

 thoroughly employed, good health and long life resulted. 

 The consumption of alcoliol, however, threatened trouble, 

 amounting as it now did annually to two dollars per head 

 of the population. I fancy that there would be consterna- 

 tion here at home also if our use of intoxicants stood at 

 that same figure, but the trouble would be in the national 

 exchequer, and not in the temperance councils. But 1 feel 

 sure that niy Minorcau friend did not wisli to l>e taken 

 seriously. A land that can produce three crops of potatoes, 



