20 NATIVE OAKS. oh. (. 



opening of the Mediterranean, but extends no farther 

 eastward. Very similar is the distribution in Europe of 

 two ferns whose natural home seems to be in the Canary 

 Islands — the graceful Davallia canariensis, and the Asple- 

 nium Hemionitis of Linnaeus. Both occur here and 

 there in shady spots, from the rock of Lisbon to Algeciras 

 and Tangier, but are unable to travel eastward beyond 

 the Pillars of Hercules. 



The scarcity of trees in this country is mainly due to 

 the mischievous interference of man. The same ignorant 

 greed of the herdsman, who to procure a little meagre 

 herbage for goats sets fire to wide tracts of brushwood, 

 that has reduced whole provinces of Spain to a nearly 

 desert condition, has been equally busy and equally 

 effectual in Marocco. The evergreen oak, which might 

 produce much valuable timber, is the chief indigenous tree 

 of this country ; but, except on the rocky western declivity 

 of the hill above Cape Spartel, few here arrive at a moder- 

 ate growth, and the same is true of the Portuguese oak 

 (Quercus lusitanica). The latter, indeed, never attains 

 a considerable stature ; but, where preserved from damage, 

 it forms thickets some twenty or thirty feet in height, 

 and, if duly protected, would help to preserve the hilly 

 districts of this region from being annually parched by 

 the summer sun. One of the shrubby evergreen oaks of 

 this country (Quercus coccifera, L.), whose dark green 

 spiny leaves are more like those of a holly than of an 

 ordinary oak, might perhaps be successfully introduced 

 in the south-western parts of the British islands. Its very 

 dense foliage would make it valuable as a screen, and it 

 produces a good effect when mixed with other shrubs. 



Although the distance did not exceed ten or twelve 

 miles, we had so much to do in filling our tin boxes and 

 portfolios that the sun was sinking in the Atlantic as we 

 reached the lighthouse at Cape Spartel. It is impossible 

 not to feel some interest in this structure that for so 

 many a mariner marks the limit of the great continent, 



