1 6 OUE FIRST EXCURSION. ch. i. 



rock of Gibraltar, and. as a consequence affecting the 

 object of our journey, the spring vegetation in North 

 Marocco was unusually retarded. At the same time, so 

 far as our sensations went, nothing could be more agree- 

 able than the climate of this season, the thermometer 

 in the shade during the day varying from 60° to 66° Fahr., 

 and the air being delightfully clear and bracing. 



On April 8 we started for a short excursion to the 

 headland of Cape Spartel. In the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Tangier Europeans may safely walk or ride unat- 

 tended ; but, as we were going a little beyond the ordinary 

 limits, it was considered prudent to give us the escort of 

 two soldiers, and to these we added a baggage mule and 

 a native guide. In a botanical sense we were about to 

 travel over beaten ground-^-the only spot in all Marocco 

 where a naturalist can without difficulty wander at will 

 over rocky hills that retain their natural vegetation. The 

 little that was then known of the flora of the empire 

 would have dwindled to a scanty list if we had struck out 

 the rich collections that successive botanists during the 

 last 100 years have brought from the Djebel Kebir and 

 the adjoining hilly district west of Tangier, Although 

 there was little prospect of new discovery, the expedition 

 could not fail to offer a veritable feast to a botanist, and 

 especially to one not already familiar with the vegetation 

 of the opposite coast and the adjoining region of southern 

 Portugal. 



After standing the fire of some harmless ' chaff' from 

 the Jew and Moorish boys that loitered about the city 

 gate, we soon got clear of the enclosures near the town, and 

 descended through cultivated land into a little grassy val- 

 ley that lies below the hilly range of the Djebel Kebir. 

 Bright spring annuals — blue and yellow lupen, crimson 

 Adonis, a deep orange marigold {Calendula suffruticosa), 

 blue pimpernel, and other less conspicuous flowers — enli- 

 vened the tillage ground ; but the northern botanist is 

 more struck by the perennial species that hold their ground 



