228 BOTANY OF SPAIN. [August, 



de France/ by Grenier and Godron ; Woods' ' Tourist's Flora ' 

 (in which Spain is not included) ; and by way of a general Flora, 

 the Compendium of Persoon, which, notwithstanding the ex- 

 treme brevity and frequent want of precision of its descriptions, 

 enabled me to determine some plants which I could not otherwise 

 have identified. I must premise further, that the only mode of 

 travelling in Spain (except on horseback) being by public con- 

 veyances, want of time, and of information as to halting-places, 

 confined us for the most part to journeys from one large town to 

 another; and the rapid pace of the diligences precluded even 

 that common resource of Continental travelling, taking advantage 

 of hills for pedestrian exploration of roadsides. My experience 

 therefore of Spanish botany was mostly confined to the imme- 

 diate vicinity of considerable towns. Of the intermediate spaces 

 I saw, in general, only what could be seen from a diligence 

 drawn by from ten to sixteen mules at full gallop, or through the 

 windoAVs of a railway carriage; and thus, although I passed a 

 whole month in Spain, I had but a few days of real botanizing 

 during that period, which extended from the middle of April to 

 the middle of May, in an extremely backward season. It is a 

 proof of the botanical riches of the country, that with only these 

 opportunities and such imperfect qualifications, I can still furnish 

 a respectable list of plants. 



The province which I first visited, and of which I saw most, 

 was Catalonia j which, both botanically and geologically, may 

 serve as a representative of the whole north-east region of Spain. 

 It differs from Aragon and Valencia chiefly in being more 

 mountainous. Its northern portion is a confused heap of moun- 

 tains ; and all the way to Barcelona these come down to, or very 

 near, the sea. Towards Barcelona they open out into a crescent 

 of no great depth, leaving a semicircular plain, in the centre of 

 which, on the sea, stands this fine city, rich in the signs of 

 prosperous industry, and hemmed in by a girdle of populous 

 villages as prosperous as itself. Close beside it, on a hill culti- 

 vated to the top, is the celebrated but not formidable-looking 

 fortress of Monjuich, the scene of so many exploits in the old wars. 

 The plain is rich and fertile, without artificial irrigation, at least 

 in the usual Spanish manner, by canals. Such irrigational ap- 

 paratus as I saw (all of which was quite close to Barcelona) con- 

 sisted of those curious irrigation-towers, the work of the Saracens, 



