cii. IX. FLOEA OF THE HIGHEE EEGION. 231 



had nothing to complain of; for, in the upper part of this 

 valley, out of 151 species collected, 31 are described as 

 new ; and, so far as we know, are peculiar to the Great 

 Atlas chain. This gives about the same proportion of 

 endemic species as the Sierra Nevada of Granada, always 

 regarded as a singularly rich botanical district. 



The most remarkable feature of the flora of this 

 region, is, undoubtedly, the very large proportion of com- 

 mon plants of the colder temperate region (Central and 

 North-Western Europe), here found associated with species 

 of very different type. Nearly one-half (70 out of 151) 

 of the species found in the upper zone, belong to this cate- 

 gory, and the proportion is here actually larger than it is 

 in the higher mountains of Southern Spain. It was fur- 

 ther remarkable that several of these northern species, 

 such as the wild gooseberry, are plants that do not extend 

 to the South of Spain, although climatal conditions must 

 be at least equally favourable, and whose nearest known 

 habitat is six or seven hundred miles distant. Especially 

 to be noted was the fact that, with the doubtful exception 

 of Sagina Linncei (the Spergula saginoides of the older 

 botanists), not one of the plants in question is character- 

 istically an Alpine species, or typical of the Arctic or 

 glacial flora. Combining this with the almost complete 

 alj:sence of rushes and sedges, we are forced to conclude 

 that, whatever agencies may have contributed to make up 

 the existing flora of the Great Atlas, transport by floating 

 ice during the last glacial period cannot have been 

 amongst them. If such ice-rafts were ever borne to what 

 was then probably a long western peninsula of Northern 

 Africa, they must either have foundered at sea with all 

 their vegetable crew, or, if cast ashore, must have found 

 an inhospitable region where the voyagers were starved, 

 and left no descendants. 



As was to be expected, from the habitual dryness of 

 the climate, ferns were here deficient in number and 

 variety. In the upper region we found very sparingly 



