CH. XII. EEilAINS OF A KASBAH. 323 



tion of Europe, to which we were now returning, ferocious 

 passions, surpassing in their destructiveness those of the 

 barbarian or the mere savage, may lie concealed until 

 some unexpected shock causes their explosion. 



The night was e\'en cooler than the preceding one, and 

 to our surprise the tliermometer, about a quarter of an 

 hour after sunrise on June 3, marked only 56° F. We 

 employed a couple of hours in the morning in rambling 

 about the gardens and irrigated ground near the springs, 

 without adding much of interest to our collections, and 

 at about 8 p.m. started for Mogador. 



For some distance the country was well wooded. Or- 

 chards and olive groves did not extend much beyond the 

 bounds of the irrigated tract ; the Gallitris then became 

 predominant, intermixed, here and there, with scattered 

 Argan trees. In open spots the two showy species of 

 Helianthemum seen the day before, H. hcdimifolium and 

 //. lavandulcefolium, were still in full flower, and we 

 gathered, for the first time, a charming little Eryngium. 

 {E. tenue) with extremely delicate spiny leaves and invor 

 lucre. Mediterranean shrubs, such as the Arbutus and 

 Phillyrea, growing along with such local forms as Rhus 

 oxyacantha, Staiice mucronata, and Bupleurum cane- 

 scens, would have sufficiently informed a botanist that he 

 was approaching the Atlantic coast of North Africa. 



We soon after crossed a belt of land showing marks of 

 former cultivation, where no dwellings were in sight, but 

 where we passed close to a considerable group of eaithy 

 mounds, partly overgrown by vegetation, and showing 

 here and there the remains of massive walls of tapia that 

 had partially resisted the process of destruction. These 

 ruins marked the site of the large kasbah of a former 

 Governor. According to the custom of the country this 

 had been pillaged and destroyed some thirty years before, 

 when the owner fell from power. The traces of man's former 

 presence were speedily lost as we entered on a tract of rocky 

 ground, where the tertiary calcareous rock lay in horizontal 



