CH. ui. DIFFICULTY OF DRYING PLAifTS. 63 



Boissier and Eeuter. Not easily foiled from his purpose, 

 Maw returned two days later, and succeeded in his object. 

 Subsequent examination has convinced us that the plant 

 growing near the lakes is a luxuriant form of the Iris 

 filifolia of Southern Spain, though intermediate between 

 that and I. tingitana. The latter may perhaps be an 

 extreme form of the same plant, but is yet little known, 

 and had not, as far as we know, been brought into cultiva- 

 tion until carried to England by Maw. Our plant, which 

 is one of the most beautiful of a beautiful group, is figured, 

 under the name Xyphion tingitanum, in the 98th volume 

 of the ' Botanical Magazine,' No. 5981. Nothing can sur- 

 pass in the scale of rich sombre decoration the gradations 

 of dark purple and brown velvet that enrich the petals. 



One of the troubles that most try the patience of a 

 botanical traveller here awaited us. As we had already 

 assured ourselves, the spring climate of North Marocco is 

 delightful to the human frame. The sky had been clear, the 

 air warm, and only one or two slight showers of rain had 

 fallen since we first landed on the coast ; but the breezes, 

 whether they travel eastward from the Atlantic, or west- 

 ward from the Mediterranean, are laden with aqueous 

 vapour nearly to the point of saturation, and nothing dries 

 spontaneously by mere exposure to the air. Although our 

 system of drying our plants by ventilating gratings makes 

 it quite unnecessary to change the paper in such a climate 

 as that of the Alps, or most parts of Europe, we now 

 found that all the collections left at Tangier were suffering 

 from damp, many specimens covered with mildew, and 

 some hopelessly destroyed. Many hours on this and the 

 following day were consumed in the endeavour to remedy 

 the mischief. So far as structure is concerned, damp, 

 when not too long continued, does not disorganise the 

 tissues ; but it finally removes the remaining freshness of 

 colour which makes the beauty of a well-dried specimen. 



In the course of the day we made some purchases of 

 Fez pottery, of which a large store is kept by a Jew dealer. 



