CH. :^. VARIETIES OF THE EVERGREEN OAK. 253 



by hostile tribes, and others had been abandoned by their 

 inhabitants who had migrated elsewhere. Perhaps owing 

 to the scantiness of the present population, timber was 

 more abundant here than usual in the Grreat Atlas. 

 Besides larger trees at intervals, the slopes along which 

 we rode were to a great extent covered with oak scrub to 

 such an extent as to leave little space for herbaceous 

 plants. The prevailing form of oak in this part of the 

 valley tends to confirm the opinion of those botanists 

 who, with Visiani, consider the common evergreen oak 

 {Quercus Ilex), and the cork oak {Quercus suber), to be 

 forms of the same plant. In general appearance, the oak 

 here quite resembled Q. suber, and in the older trees the 

 tendency to form a corky outer bark was apparent ; but 

 the anthers all showed traces of the sharp points which 

 are supposed to distinguish those of the common species. 



At a point where a slender rivulet from the dry flanks 

 of the hills on our left enters the valley, we passed close 

 to a small village, with a belt of cultivation surrounding 

 it, and soon after began to descend steeply to the bed of 

 the torrent, no longer so distant from us as it had been in 

 the lower part of the valley. Here we found several fine 

 plants not before seen, and then, somewhat to our surprise, 

 began to ascend, by a narrow and difficult path, the steep 

 rocky slope above the left bank of the torrent. Our ob- 

 ject was to pass the night at the uppermost end of the 

 valley, as near as possible to the foot of Djebel Tezah,and 

 the sheik had undertaken to conduct us to the highest 

 village. We were now informed that this stands on the 

 west side, and some 600 or 700 feet above the level of the 

 torrent. This was evidently inconvenient, as our route on 

 the following day must clearly keep to the eastern bank ; 

 but there seemed to be no help for it, and, as the rocks on 

 this side were different in appearance, we perceived a fair 

 prospect of adding some novelties to om' collections. 



About 2 P.M. we reached Iminteli, the poor village 

 which served as our head-quarters for the next two days. 



