444 TRANSACTIONS AND PJIOCKEDINGS OF Till', [Sess. Lxviii. 



and that, wherever scratched by a primitive wooden plough, 

 is stated to yield half as much again as a similar area 

 would upon the mainland, should not be despised. Any 

 community that adheres to the main principles of temper- 

 ance, plain living, and abundant exercise, will of necessity 

 be hardy and long-lived. 



The famous Barranco is a fissure, or canon, riven through 

 the plateau of miocene rock that occupies the whole of 

 southern Minorca. Following a sinuous course of six or 

 eight miles from near the centre of the island to the coast, 

 its pinnacled rocks and precipices, two or three hundred 

 feet high, are grandly picturesque. A stream threads the 

 bottom of the gorge, and cliffs alternately close in to make 

 a dark narrow cleft through which the water rushes like a 

 millrace, or open out that the sun may play on the orange 

 gardens and subtropical vegetation that flourish at the 

 bottom of the moist ravine, where the air is always soft and 

 warm. Sheltered entirely from the high winds of the 

 uplands above, this is one of the few spots in the island 

 where palms and citrus fruits can reach perfection. 

 Laurus nohilis attains the height of fifty feet, and rare 

 plants are frequent along the rocky escarpments. Pceonia 

 corallina abounds, a variety differing from our Steep Holms 

 plant by its glabrous follicles. A decoction of the root is 

 much used as a remedy for epilepsy. Delphinium staphis- 

 agria also is plentiful, and Urtica pihilifera, the most 

 vicious and venomous of nettles. Other new species met 

 with that day were Viola stolonifcra, Lotus tetraphyllvs, 

 Ononis minutissima, Sihthorpia ofricana, Micromeria 

 Rodriguezii, M. filiformis, Scolopciidriiim Hemionitis, and 

 Selaginella denticulata. 



One of the last rambles from Mahon took us westward 

 along the harbour to Yilla-Carlos, a suburb founded by the 

 British under the name of George Town. Here stand our 

 soldiers' deserted barracks, untenanted since the occupation. 

 When an English ship of war visits the place, the blue- 

 jackets play football in the barrack square under windows 

 from which their compatriots looked out a century and 

 a half ago. Two Mesemhryanthemums {crystaUinum and 

 nodiflorum) grow here on rocks by the sea, and the curious 

 Ophrys spcadum that has a mirror -like patch on its 



