346 TANGIER IN JUNE. ch. xiii. 



could not deny himself the opportunity for a full day's 

 botanising' on ground so attractive, and therefore removed 

 his baggage ashore ; while Hooker returned on board the 

 Lady Haveloch, which was to cross the Strait during the 

 night. 



On arriving at the Victoria Hotel, we learned that Sir 

 J. D. Hay had taken up his residence at his charming 

 villa on the Djebel Kebir, but we found awaiting us a 

 kind note enclosing a welcome packet of letters from 

 England. After a hasty dinner at the hotel, the time for 

 parting came, and Hooker got out through the sea gate 

 just before it was closed for the night. The mail steamer 

 had left Gibraltar for England on the same day that we 

 returned to Tangier; but on the following morning 

 Hooker found the steamship Burmah, bound from Bom- 

 bay to London, about to depart from Gibraltar, and' after 

 a rather slow voyage he reached the Thames on the morn- 

 ing of June 21. 



Ball enjoyed a capital day's plant-hunting at Tangier. 

 The morning was given to the sandy tract near the shore 

 and the course of the stream that passes by the east side 

 of the town. This now made a much more brilliant show 

 than it had done in the month of April. Many fine 

 UmhellifercB and Labiatce, then barely in leaf, were now in 

 full flower and fruit. Of these the queen was Salvia 

 hicolor, a magnificent species, usually four or five feet, but 

 sometimes eight or even ten feet high, much branched, 

 with leaves of varied form from twelve to eighteen inches 

 long, and great interrupted spikes of large blue and white 

 flowers. 



The slopes of the Djebel Kebir, which had been so 

 brilliant in the spring, had now lost their splendour. The 

 gum cistus, the golden Genista and Gytisua, the heaths, 

 and many other ornamental species had long since shed 

 their petals, and had been succeeded by new comers, most 

 of them with comparatively inconspicuous flowers. For 

 the botanist, however, the fruit is often more important 



