272 Capt. Lyues on the Oniitholoyy [Ibis, 



but the woodcutters have always to be guarded from attack, 

 and enormous areas of forest, the safe retreat of the hostile 

 Berbers, still remain economically inaccessible, 



(Au-ioiisly, despite the (jiiantity of dead cedars, full of 

 holes and crannies, very few birds seem to care to nest either 

 in them or in the dense foliage of the livino- trees, the Ilex 

 has almost exclusive [)reference. 



Inters|)ersed with the Ilex occur small belts and groups 

 of Spanish deciduous oaks {Q. hellota), some \vith fine 

 straight 50-foot trunks overtopping even the largest of the 

 Ilex. 



With a few maple and junipers (Jiiirij>ervs jt/uvnicea) in 

 the upper, and p'gmy ash and parasitic ivy in the lower 

 zone, the census of tree-growth of the Forest is about 

 com])leted. 



The forest undergrowth (besides^ of course, saplings of the 

 trees) consists in the Ilex zone, niaiidy of Laurustinus and 

 Holh% with occasional Viburnum and Pyrus bushes, and a 

 knee growth (where stones permit) of butcher broom, etc.; 

 while Avith the cedars up to their ultimate limit, especially 

 in the burnt tracts, (although the live trees are seldom so 

 packed as to "shade-out'^ undergrowth away from the 

 proximity of the bole), are generally associated thickets of 

 the beautiful Ct/tisus hattand'teri^. 



The darieres and cols are attractive with bushes of many 

 kinds. Hawthorn ])redominates all through the Forest 

 zone up to the brink of the Plateau, and is a favourite host 

 of the red-berried mistletoe (sometimes too much so for its 

 life) ; of other species, honeysiickle, bramble, holly, cistus, 

 cherry, locally wild vine, and several Gemstce are among 

 the most prominent, but the majority^ drop out some way 

 before the Plateau is reached. 



Of flowering plants, a large pink preony, abundant 

 throughout the Cedar zone, must be acknowledged Queen ; 

 Cytisns hattandieri, with large drooping racemes of golden 

 yellow, becomes a wealth of colour and fragrance in mid- 



* Special to Maroccan Atlas, 



