CH. 1. SPBINa VEGETATION. 17 



on the large portion of the soil which the plough has not 

 touched. Predominant among these, as elsewhere through- 

 out a large part of the Mediterranean region, is the pal- 

 metto, or dwarf palm ( Ohamceropa humilis). Where unmo- 

 lested by animals, and protected from the periodic fires 

 that the native herdsmen renew for the sake of getting 

 herbage for their cattle, it forms a thick trunk, ten or 

 twelve feet in height, vi^hich probably takes a long time 

 to attain its full size ; but in the open places it is com- 

 monly stemless, and covers the ground with its radiating 

 tufts of stiff fan-shaped leaves. Many plants of the lily 

 tribe abound ; but in this mild climate most of them had 

 flowered in winter, and few now showed more than their 

 tufts of large root-leaves. Most conspicuous is the large 

 maritime squill (Scilla maritima of Linnaeus). The 

 flowers are not large or showy, and do not correspond with 

 the size of the bulb which often equals that of a man's 

 head. Another species of the same genus (Scilla hemi- 

 sphmrica) is more ornamental, as are the two common as- 

 phodels. The slender iris (J. Sisyrhynchium of Linnseus), 

 whose delicate flower lasts only a few hours — opening one 

 at a time on successive days, appearing about mid-day and 

 withering in the afternoon — is very abundant. 



On reaching the hollow ground, where a slender stream 

 runs through damp meadows, we were charmed by the 

 delicate tint of a pale blue daisy that enamels the green 

 turf. It is merely a slight variety of the little annual 

 daisy (Bellis annua), so common in many parts of Southern 

 Europe ; but the blue tint does not seem to have been 

 noticed elsewhere. The larger blue daisy, afterwards seen 

 as one of the ornaments of the mountain region of the 

 Grreat Atlas, was at first supposed to belong to the same 

 species ; but, besides that this is perennial, it shows other 

 less obvious differences. 



It was on the slopes of the Djebel Kebir, where the 

 stony ground is almost exclusively occupied by a dense 

 mass of small shrubs, few of them rising more than three 



c 



