Botanical Notices from Spain. 19] 
Before speaking of the environs of Malaga, I will endeavour briefly 
to describe the rich and interesting vegetation of the lofty mountains 
of Yunquera, which I had an opportunity of investigating during a 
sojourn of several days at the end of April. The little town of Yun- 
quera lies in an almost circular expanse, surrounded by one of the 
branches of the Serrania, close to the foot of the steep mountain of 
the same name. From the mountains of Ronda a branch runs in a 
north-eastern direction as far as the Guadalhorce, which bounds the 
wide valley of Yunquera north and east, and forms between this 
place and the river two parallel chains of 5000 to 6000 feet high, 
bearing the names of Sierra Blanquilla and Sierra Prieta. Both 
these chains consist of limestone, and are remarkable for their ste- 
rility and nakedness. In one of the valleys running in a southern 
direction lies the village of Alozdina, through which the road leads 
from Malaga to Yunquera, and is separated from the Guadalhorce 
by an undulating hilly land. In these hills I observed large tracts 
wholly overgrown by Convolvulus tricolor, L., C. undulatus, Cav., and 
Lavatera trimestris, L.; on dry stones, plots of grass, and under 
shrubs in sunny spots blossomed Cleonia lusitanica, L., Salvia viridis, 
L., Teucrium pseudo-chamepitys, L., Asperula hirsuta, Desf., Micro- 
meria greca, Bth., (3. latifolia, Boiss.; in corn-fields Ornithogalum 
narbonnense, L., and a Phalaris; and by the road-side Galactites to- 
mentosa, Ormenis mixta, DC., Micropus supinus, L., Plantago Serra- 
ria, L., P. albicans, L., &e. Upon walls and rocks at Alozaéina the 
pretty blue-fiowered Umbilicus hispidus, DC., is very common, as also 
on the rocks im the valleys of the Sierra Prieta, which the road 
crosses. In shady places we meet with isolated specimens of Saro- 
thamnus affinis, Boiss. (Cytisus affinis, Brot.). Near Yunquera is a 
rocky eminence, upon which stands an old watch-tower, one of the 
few habitats of the rare Digitalis laciniata, Lindl., which unfortunately 
was not yet in flower. Here, and throughout all the rocky district 
of Yunquera, the pretty large-blossomed Erodium guttatum, W., is 
found plentifully. In the same undeveloped state as Digitalis laci- 
miata 1 met with two of Boissier’s choice plants, namely Linaria 
Clementei and Salvia Candelabrum, which occur at the foot and in 
the lowest part of the Sierra, and whose stems were just beginning 
to shoot. 
The first excursion which I made from Yunquera led me into the 
lowest parts of the mountain, toward the zacimiento of the Rio 
Grande. By this is understood the issuing forth of an entire river 
directly from a cavern in the rock,—the only rivulet of any import- 
ance in the whole mountain-chain of Yunquera, which is unusually 
destitute of water. Through a rocky side-valley, watered. by the 
stream on which the little town stands, we enter on the romantic 
‘Barranco del Nacimiento, hemmed in on all sides by picturesque 
rocks, in the depths of which the water of the Rio Grande, con- 
stantly interrupted in its course by immense blocks of marble, ap- 
parently loses itself in milk-white foam. At the mouth of the rivulet 
of Yunquera is a spinning-manufactory belonging to the apothecary 
of the town, and this spot is the only locality for the rare Scrophularia 
