1861.] BOTANY OF SPAIN. 235 



dull-looking Polygala, P. rupestris, growing in clefts of the 

 rocks; Paronychia argentea, one of the ornaments of Sicily, 

 carpeting the ground with its silvery inflorescence and herbage ; 

 Osyris alba, a scraggy bush of the family Eleagnece, abundant in 

 the South, which, covered at this season with yellow blossoms, 

 fills the air all around with a powerful fragrance like that of 

 the Galia. At the back of the ridge, looking towards the north 

 and north-west, T came upon plants of a decidedly English cha- 

 racter. Euphorbia Characias and serrata were replaced by E. 

 amygdaloides ; and I found here the first Orchid I saw in Spain, 

 Cephalanthera ensifolia, a rare, but still a British species. Our 

 common wild Strawberry was occasionally visible. These were 

 nearly all the plants of interest which I saw in flower. Most of 

 the Comjwsita were not yet in a state to be recognizable. The 

 only ones in flower were Senecio vulgaris and viscosus. Inula 

 viscosa, and Phagnalon (or Conyza) saxatile were distinguishable. 

 The plants not in flower included several of the most character- 

 istic shrubs of southern Europe : the gorgeous Pomegranate, the 

 evergreen PhiUyraa media, the common Arbutus {A. Unedo), and 

 one of the most powerfully and sweetly odoriferous of European 

 climbers, which retains its fragrance for many years in the herba- 

 rium, Smilax aspera. To these let me add the perfoliate Lonicera 

 imjilexa, and another Honeysuckle, which was probably etrusca, 

 the other common one of the South ; for our Woodbine is in 

 southern Europe a mountain plant, and our garden L. caprifo- 

 lium I have seen wild only in Italy. The curious Asparagus 

 acutifolius ; Bupleurum rigidum, one of the oddest species of a 

 genus already anomalous among Umbellifers ; and Daphne Gni- 

 dium, an ornament of late summer and autumn, complete the 

 list of my observations in the Barcelona mountains, with the ex- 

 ception of Monserrat, the copious botany of which I keep for a 

 separate notice. 



Many of the plants above enumerated, I afterwards met with 

 in the same line of country further north, where another ever- 

 green oak, the Cork tree {Quercus Suber), abounds, and its pro- 

 duce is an important article of commerce. Here, too, the English 

 Broom, Sarothamnus scoparius, makes its appearance, even in 

 the plain, at least near the foot of the mountains. Other com- 

 mon English plants, Slellaria Holostea, Chrysanthemum segetum, 

 Centaurea Cyanus, are abundantly visible to the passing eye. 



