CH. II. COAST VEaETATION. 55 



built houses in the main street, all dazzling with fresh 

 whitewash, were gay with bright flowers that stood in pots 

 and boxes on the balconies behind ironwork of elaborately 

 ornate character, and the inhabitants had an air of activity 

 and animation not common in Spain, anywhere out of 

 Catalonia. We drew our bridles at the Fonda Italiana, 

 the best looking of several inns, where we learned that all 

 the bedrooms were occupied, and were sent for sleeping 

 quarters to a neighbouring house. We got a large room 

 with two good beds, and found everything both there and 

 at the inn, where we were well fed, scrupulously clean. 

 Our remark, which probably would not have been approved 

 in Downing Street, was, ' What a pity, when they were 

 about it, that the Spaniards did not annex the whole of 

 North Marocco!' The course of events in Spain during 

 the last six or eight years has gone far to justify Downing 

 Street, and to show that European anarchy may be even 

 worse than Moorish misgovernment. 



As, in accordance with our daily custom, we reviewed 

 the produce of our day's botanising, before committing 

 our plants to paper, it seemed to fall rather short of our 

 expectations. The season was not yet advanced enough 

 for many seaside species, and, besides, as every naturalist 

 knows, one's power of observation on horseback is com- 

 paratively limited. When the eye is carried forward by 

 an external agency, and its motion is not altogether regu- 

 lated by the will, many minute objects are too imperfectly 

 seen to convey a definite image ; and however often one 

 may dismount, many slight suggestions that would be 

 tested by one on foot are allowed to pass without verifi- 

 cation. Along with most of the shrubs that we had seen 

 about Tangier, we passed many small trees of Tamarix 

 africana and stout bushes of Juniperus phoenicea. The 

 most ornamental plant that we gathered was Phaca boitica, 

 with fine purplish blue flowers, very unlike any of the 

 forms of the same genus with which we were familiar in 

 the Alps. The most interesting plant, in a scientific 



