16 Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch. 



are however used as pasture during summer. The vegetation 

 of the coasts of the Spanish Peninsula presents the general 

 features characteristic of the Mediterranean coasts in central 

 Europe, among which we may particularly mention the ever- 

 green trees and shrubs, requiring a mild winter, and which 

 therefore cannot thrive to the northward of the moun- 

 tains separating southern from the northern Europe. To 

 the evergreen trees belong the cork tree, several species of 

 oak, which unlike ours retain their foliage in winter, the lau- 

 rel, the myrtle, the lentiscus, the so-called " strawberry-tree," 

 the pine, and the cypress. Here also appear a greater 

 number of finely scented plants and shrubs than in the 

 north, particularly among Labiatse (rosemary,) thyme, sage, 

 &c.) ; numerous bulbs with beautiful flowers, and many 

 of our garden plants, as the wallflower, tazette, anemone, 

 adonis. Several tropical forms appear, such as the dwarf- 

 palm. The luxuriant grasses of the northern countries are 

 missing, particularly during summer, when the soil suffers 

 from drought and heat. 



[To be continued.] 



Economic Geology. By Lieut. R. Baird Smith, Bengal 



Engineers. 



The doubts with which the claims of geology to eco- 

 nomical importance were so long received, may perhaps be 

 traced to the unphilosophical spirit and perverted views 

 with which its study was originally pursued. Founded en- 

 tirely on extensive, minute, and careful observation, it re- 

 quired a degree of patient application uncongenial to the 

 speculative tendencies which pervaded the scientific world 

 at the time it first began to attract public attention, and 

 as all science was then commingled with polemical con- 

 troversy, the leading doctrines of geology, intimately as- 



