44:0 TIIANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Se.ss. lxviii. 



open in the centre to the sun, so that the amount of shade 

 thrown in that brilliant climate is insignificant, and may 

 even be beneficial to the crops. As regards other trees, 

 Queo'cus Ilex and the small native pine cover large tracts 

 among the mountains, whilst the olive is more abundant 

 in the lower regions, where it appears to have been 

 cultivated from very ancient times. The giant olives of 

 Valdemosa certainly must have been planted by the 

 Moors, possibly a thousand years ago. Gnarled, twisted, 

 and contorted into fantastic shapes, the heartvvood gone 

 ages ago, and the outer shells, though still vigorous and 

 sustaining tall stems, often split into three or four separate 

 trees now standing several feet apart, these extraordinaiy 

 trees are more suggestive of a monstrous vegetation imagined 

 by a Dore or a Dante than of symbols of peace and amity. 

 Of native timber in our sense of the term, there is none in 

 Majorca. The antiquated and expensive system of cooking 

 by charcoal still prevails throughout the islands, with the 

 result that practically all the large trees have been 

 destroyed by the charcoal burner. A truly lamentable 

 result of the demand for this costly and unwholesome fuel 

 is that the beautiful Balearic box-tree (Bttxus halearica), 

 known only in Majorica and at one small spot in Spain, 

 a handsomer and more elegant plant than our British 

 species, has been almost completely destroyed. At one 

 time it is said to have formed actual forests among the 

 mountains. Some of the trunks attained the size of a 

 man's body and furnished wood for cabinetmaking ; but 

 about the year 185T they were all cut down and converted 

 into charcoal. At the present time, a few small bushes 

 merely are scattered over the cordillera of the north. We 

 ourselves found only two. 



I am not going to weary you with a detailed account of 

 excursions in Majorca, but will only note briefly the rich- 

 ness of our gatherings in the few localities we were able to 

 visit. On the shores of Palma Bay and the slopes under 

 Belver Castle grow a large number of rare plants, viz. 

 Silene cerustoides, S. rubella, Arenaria procumhens, Hclian- 

 themu7n umhellatum, H. Serroe, H. salicifolmm; Fumana 

 Spachii, Paronychia urijentea, Anthyllis cytisoides, Ononis 

 breviflora, lledysarum spinosissimum , Buhocastanum incras- 



