18 CISTUS AND HEATH REGION. ch. i. 



or four feet from the ground, but nearly all covered 'with 

 brilliant flowers, that we first began to seize the really 

 characteristic features of the North Marocco flora. A 

 great variety and abundance of flowering perennials of 

 shrubby habit is, indeed, a distinguishing feature of the 

 whole Mediterranean region ; but very little observation 

 was needed to show that we were here in that well marked 

 division that includes Southern Portugal, South-western 

 Spain, and the opposite corner of Africa. This may be 

 called for distinction the Cistus and Heath region ; for 

 though most of the same kinds of Cistus and Helianthemum 

 extend as far as the south of France, and many species of 

 heath inhabit the Atlantic coasts of Europe as far north 

 as Connemara, it is only here that both these tribes 

 flourish together, and give a prevailing character to the 

 vegetation. Most conspicuous of all is the gum-cistus 

 (0. ladaniferus), which in the Sierra Morena and the 

 adjoining parts of Spain and Portugal obtains such pre- 

 dominance that for twenty miles together one may ride 

 through a continuous thicket where the peculiar scent of 

 the gum that covers the leaves and young branches is 

 never absent. About Tangier the rich purple spot that 

 usually adorns the base of the large petals is wanting, and 

 the flowers show unmixed snowy white. Of the same 

 tribe, besides several true Cisti, there are many species of 

 Helianthemurti. Of heaths, along with the commoner 

 kinds {Erioa arbor ea and E. acoparia), we saw in abun- 

 dance the rarer and more characteristic forms, E. australis 

 and E. umbellata. E. ciliata, one of our English rarities, 

 is here very scarce, though it grows on the opposite side 

 of the Strait. Our common heather (Calluna vulgaris) 

 still holds its ground, but in a poor and stunted condition. 

 The rhododendron of the East {Eh. vonticum), that is at 

 home in the mountain region of Asia Minor and Syria, 

 and which strangely reappears here and there among the 

 low hills between Tarifa and Algeciras, on the north side 

 of the Straits, has not been found on the African shore ; but 



