178 Botanicnl Notices from Spain. 



palcre transformed into perfect vegetative lea^"es of the flowers 

 situated higlier up, all the flowering organs have generally disap- 

 peared without leaving a ti'aec behind them. 



XXVI. — Botanical Notices from Spain. By Moritz Willkomm *. 



No. I. Valencia, middle of May 1844. 



On the first days of my stay in Valencia, where I arrived on the 

 5th of May, my operations were confined to making acquaintance with 

 the scientific institutions and the surrounding neighbourhood of the 

 town. I was the more invited to do this, since the continued rainy 

 weather offered an obstacle to longer excursions. Indeed the Valen- 

 cians themselves could scarcely remember it to have rained so abun- 

 dantly and uninterruptedly, and this weather was even a subject of 

 public discussion in the newspapers. The temperature was almost 

 to be called cool ; since at this time of year the mean daily tempe- 

 rature is usually 20° C, and it amounted then barely to 15° — 17° C. 

 One of my first walks was to the Botanical Garden by the Puerta de 

 Cuarte : into this you enter through a rather insignificant building in 

 which the lectures on botany and agriculture are delivered. The 

 garden, laid out in a magnificent style, occupies a very large sjjacc, 

 and considering the glorious climate and the uncommon fertility of 

 the soil, might, under the direction of an able man, become one of 

 the most important gardens in Europe, if the government would do 

 something for its maintenance. It has it is true the appearance of a 

 botanical garden, since one sees many rows of labels, but the plants 

 are wanting. What plants there are, are the remnant of those placed 

 there through Cavanilles, and exotic shrubs and trees of a still earlier 

 date. The fault of this lamentable decline of so well-arranged an 

 institution is partly to be laid to the deficiency of interest on the 

 part of the government in all that relates to science, partly and 

 chiefly to the want of a well-informed director. Considering how 

 luxuriantly everything grows up in this happy land in a few years, 

 without any care, much might be accompUshed with very little 

 money. Of plant-houses there is no trace ; they are indeed super- 

 fluous, since a great number of tropical plants may be cultivated very 

 well here in the open ground ; at the utmost only a green-house 

 would be necessary in the short winter. The present director of the 

 garden is named Don Jose Pezcuerda, so far as I may judge, a tole- 

 rably ignorant man, whose whole knowledge of literature is confined 

 to little more than tlie works of Linnaeus, Cavanilles, Clemente, 

 Lagasca, Bufton and DeCandolle. Of Germany he knew almost 

 nothing ; neither does he possess a herbarium. Nevertheless the 

 garden is in somewhat better condition in his hands than under the 

 direction of his predecessor, the present Cathedratico of agriculture, 

 Don Joaquin Carrascosa, formerly Archdeacon in Alicant. Although 



* Translated from the Botanische Zeitnng, Aug. 9, and Oct. 18, 1844, 

 and communicated by A. Henfrey, F.L.S. 



