342 Botanical Notices from Spain. 
cens, Poir., and other mountain plants. I found rarely in this moun- 
tain-chain the beautiful silver-coloured Pterocephalus spathulatus, 
Boiss. (Knautia spath. Lag. gen. et sp.), forming patches, on fallow 
land Anagallis verticillata, All.; and along the road-side and in 
ditches Hypericum tomentosum, L., and the beautiful Salvia phlomoi- 
des, Asso. Lastly, I gathered in the valleys of the Sierra del Moli- 
nillo, whose vegetation agrees on the whole with the already-de- 
scribed Sierra, a very beautiful yellow Astragalus, and in clefts of 
the shady Jimestone rocks the Sarcocapnos crassifolius, DC., forming 
very brittle beds. fon 
With this mountain district is connected on the east a broad, 
partly undulating and barren high table-land, which on the south is 
surrounded by the Sierra Nevada and its branches, on the east by 
the Sierra de Gor, and on the north by other lower mountain-chains, 
and in whose soil (which consists of tertiary and diluvial formations). 
the rivers descending from the Sierra Nevada have worn very pecu- 
liarly formed ravines, or deep valleys. This is the Plain of Guadix, 
which possesses only a scanty but peculiar vegetation. The whole 
ground is evidently very much charged with salt, which is partly 
proved by the neighbouring mineral waters of Graéna, and partly 
by the saline plants which occur. The following plants grow here 
very plentifully: Lygeum Spartum, L., Peganum Harmala, L., Astra- 
galus tumidus, W. (Anthyllis tragacanthoides, Desf.), Macrochloa 
tenacissima, Kth., Artemisia campestris, L., A. Burrelieri, Boiss., 
various Chenopodiacee and Salsolacee, and on isolated places Sideri- 
tis linearifolia, Lag., a delicate species with lineal subulate leaves 
and whitish-yellow flowers. On walls and ditches in the environs 
of the pleasant town of Guadix, which lies in a wide valley, were at 
this time in blossom Ephedra altissima, Desf., Lepidium latifolium, 
L., Althea officinalis, L., and Vitex Agnus-castus, L., in abundance. 
Further eastwards, and separated from the’Plain of Guadix by the 
Sierra de Gor, which is extremely poor in plants, but partly covered 
with fir-trees, is the broad gypsum basin of Baza, in the midst of 
which rises the Sierra de Baza, a perfectly isolated great rocky 
mountain, which I regret that I have not been able to visit. The 
limits of this plain, destitute alike of trees and water, and intersected. 
by a thousand small valleys, are, on the south, the mountain-chains 
of Lucar and Serén, on the east the chains of Cullar, Oria and Pe- 
riate, and on the north the lofty chains of Huescar and Cazorla, in 
which are the sources of the Guadalquivir. The town of Baza lies 
on the acclivity of a chain of sand-hills, on which Santolina canes- 
cens, Lag., flowers in great abundance, and near to the river of the 
same name, on whose sandy banks I gathered, under shrubs of Ta- 
marix gallica and oleanders, Frankenia pulverulenta, L., and Cynan- 
chum monspeliacum, L. As soon as the river is crossed, you enter 
on the so-called gypsum formation, the shining white ground is 
covered with a purely saline vegetation. Immense tracts were exclu- 
sively covered with Macrochloa tenacissima, Kth.; on other localities 
the flora consisted of a number of interesting plants, as Lygeum 
Spartum, Obione portulacoides, Mocq., Frankenia thymifolia, Desf., 
