SOME FLOWERS OF GIBRALTAR AND ALGECIRAS. 



177 



blossoms were remaining to show what it had been. Yellow Cytisus 

 of several varieties grew in abundance, and besides the usual varieties 

 of pink and white Cistus was the common small one, here yellow instead 

 of white. I do not mean one of the small yellow Helianthemi, but the 

 shrubby white Cistus, which I have never elsewhere found yellow. If it 

 is a distinct species it is one hitherto unknown to me. 



Later in the year — on March 29 — I spent another day at Algeciras, 

 and went out in the opposite direction to some Fir woods on the level and 

 below the hills. Here I found the beautiful yellow Anemone palmata 

 growing on the edge of the woods, and in a neighbouring field in quantities 

 like Buttercups. There was also a pretty blue Squill, and outside the woods 

 were numbers of Lupines, both blue and yellow. Along the dry road 

 sides were numbers of the beautiful little blue Iris Sisijrinchium, which 

 I had found in February on the other side of Algeciras. This Iris, 

 one of the most delicate and beautiful of the tribe, seems to like hard, 

 dry, trodden ground and great heat, and its distribution round the 

 Mediterranean is interesting. I have found it also at Gibraltar, in the 

 Algerian Atlas near Tangier, near Malaga, and in Malta and Sicily. It 

 grows among the stretches of stone and ruins at Syracuse, and on what 

 were once the seats of the Amphitheatre at Taormina. But I have never 

 seen it anywhere like what it was near Hammam R'hira in the Atlas, 

 either for beauty or abundance. I have never had the opportunity of 

 looking for it in South Italy, but though well acquainted with the 

 flowers of both French and Italian Rivieras I have never found it there. 

 It seems to require more heat. 



The flowers of Gibraltar and Algeciras are certainly both beautiful 

 and interesting. I have mentioned only a few of them, but they deserve 

 more notice than they generally receive. 



N 



