230 BOTANY OF SPAIN. [AuffUSt, 



brilliant yellow, while it projects its sword-like floweriug branches 

 vertically and laterally, like the dwarf autumnal Furze of our 

 commons ; these form the most conspicuous clothing of the un- 

 cultivated ground in the coast region of Catalonia. The honeyed 

 Koniya maritima, in flower at all seasons, and especially after 

 other flowers have disappeared, covers the ground, both waste 

 and cultivated, to great distances from the sea ; and another 

 winter plant, Diplo taxis erucoides (which is brought into Rome 

 by cartloads in full flower throughout January), adorns the cul- 

 tivated lands with its light-grey cruciform blossoms. If to these 

 we add several species of Cistus and Helianthemum (of which 

 hereafter), a tolerably complete idea is given of the vegetation, as 

 it exhibits itself at this season to an eye merely wandering over 

 the face of the country. 



To proceed to local details ; the plants of Barcelona may be 

 divided into those of the plain, and those of the crescent of low 

 calcareous mountains which overlook it. The brightest flower of 

 the plain, in these ' spring months, is Hypecoum procumbens, a 

 Papaveraceous plant, with a flower like that of Chelidonium majus, 

 and about as large, though the plant itself is small in comparison. 

 It has a long, crooked pod, and its leaves are cut like those of an 

 Erodiuni. Notwithstanding the name py'ocumbens, the plant, 

 though spreading, is erect, and grows copiously among the corn, 

 in appearance like an agrarian Ranunculus, of greater size and 

 finer quality than R. arvensis. I found this plant in other parts 

 of Spain, and I had already found it near Perpignan. I will 

 not affirm that some of it may not be H. grandiflorum, if there 

 be any real difference between the two. I met with another un- 

 doubtedly different Hypecoum further south, which will be com- 

 memorated in its place. Of Ranunculi I noticed near Barcelona 

 only R. bulbosus, and the aquatic but not batrachian species 

 muricaius, allied to sceleratus, but with a fruit of a somewhat 

 similar character to arvensis. A fine Fumaria, with large white 

 and purple flowers (which I also saw near Perpignan), seemed to 

 be muralis of Grenier and Godron; but those authors, I ob- 

 serve, have on reconsideration decided their plant to be not one 

 species but three, none of them the true muralis of Sender. 

 The CrucifercE 1 noticed were those common plants of southern 

 France, Sisymbrium Irio and obtusangulum, and Lepidium Draba. 

 Reseda Phyteuma, a plant nearly resembling odorata, but without 



