344: Botanical Notices from Spain. 
chum spinosum, Boiss., here constantly with white flowers ; Anthyllis 
Erinacea, L., Vella spinosa, Boiss., Genista aspalathoides, DC., var. 
confertior, Boiss., and Juniperus phenicea, L. On loose rocky soil 
and fields at the foot of the mountain-chain I remarked Minuartia 
campestris, LOfil.,in plenty, Lagecia cuminoides, L., Polygonum Con- 
volvulus, L., and various grasses, Almost the same, but a much 
poorer vegetation is found on the lower Sierra de Oria. 
Between Maria and the lofty Sagra de Huescar, which I ascended 
on the 15th of June, is a wide, undulating, high table-land, destitute 
of water and trees, which presents only a few plants. I however 
gathered some rather scarce plants here in plenty, as the pretty 
Jurinea pinnata, DC. (Stehelina, Lag.), Thymus membranaceus, Boiss., 
Allium spherocephalum, L., a pretty Onobrychis and a beautiful large- 
blossomed Lavatera. Some low mountain-ridges, almost wholly co- 
vered with Lavandula Spica, have to be traversed before reaching 
the foot of the Sagra, on which lies the large hamlet of La Puebla 
de Don Fabrique, in whose neighbourhood occurs Santolina pectinata 
in plenty, and distant several miles from the Sagra, on which some 
fields of snow were still visible. This colossal mountain is on its 
southern and western acclivity up to half its height thickly wooded 
with firs, in whose shade I met with a pretty little Campanula on 
the loose vegetable soil. The whole of the upper portion of the 
mountain is entirely barren, and covered on almost all sides with 
loose limestone debris. 'The summit is formed of a narrow, grassy 
level, on which the remarkable rose-red Senecio Boissieri, DC., 
flowers in company with a Paronychia, Anthyllis Webbiana, Hook., 
and Galium pyrenaicum, Gou. On the rocks of the northern accli- 
vity below the summit I gathered a small Sazifraga with Valeriana 
tuberosa, DC.; and upon barren limestone debris, almost wholly 
concealed among the loose stones, here and on the western acclivity, 
two peculiar plants in great profusion, namely a Platycapnos with 
nearly round heads of small flesh-coloured flowers and finely divided, 
grayish-green leaves, and a pretty stemless Cichoriaceous plant with 
almost spathulate long petiolated leaves, covered on both sides with 
a white wool, and a long -stalked head of large blossoms of yellow 
flowers, on the underside of a carmine colour. On the debris of the 
southern acclivity occur the pretty Scutellaria orientalis, L., more 
frequent Ptilotrichum spinosum, Vella spinosa, Anthyllis Erinacea, and 
Andryala Agardhii. 
About six miles east of Maria and a mile from Velez-Blanco rises 
a remarkable rugged mountain. somewhat of the form of the Lilien- 
stein in the Saxon Switzerland, which has the name of Muela de 
Montalbiche, and may be about 5000 feet high. This immense 
limestone rock forms the highest point and the most western abut- 
ment of a chain, the greatest part of which belongs to the kingdom 
of Murcia, and is only. accessible from the western side. I ascended 
it on the 19th of July, and found here in the rocky clefts from the 
foot to the summit the elegant Hypericum ericoides, L., in great 
plenty ; and moreover on the shady rocky. walls of the upper part a 
small, half-shrubby, fragile, whitish-gray Teucrium forming patches, 
