ARGOTTI BOTANICAL GARDENS AND THE FLORA OF MALTA. 583 



honey- scented Koniga maritima, dwarf forms of Salvia clandestinely and a' 

 small Dandelion (Tewaxacum minimum). In one part the tall labiate Phlomis 

 fruticosei, with its large yellow flowers, is common. A Dodder, Cuscuta 

 globularis, attacks everything, sometimes completely destroying large 

 plants of Asphodel. The blue Iris Sisyrinchium, a small purple-flowered 

 Bomulea, and Allium Chamcemoly, as well as Aloe vulgaris occurring in 

 one place, are also characteristic of exposed areas. 



4. Maritime Rocks and Sandy Shores.— The south side of the 

 island is mostly composed of high precipitous cliffs. The coast is also 

 rocky on the east and north-east parts. The small rivulets nearly 

 all enter the sea on the north side, where are the principal " Marsas " or 

 sandy beaches, such as St. Paul's and Mellaha Bay. 



Maritime plants are represented by the Horn Poppy, Glaucium 

 luteum; Sea-Kale, Crambc maritima; three kinds of Stock, M. atthiola; the 

 Caper, Capparis spinosa ; and a curious shrubby little St. John's Wort, 

 Hypericum cegyptiacum, with dimorphic flowers, which is abundant on 

 the rocks on the south side ; Fagonia cretica, a North African desert 

 plant, but found in one locality in Sicily ; the Samphire, Crithmum 

 maritimum ; a form of Chamomile, viz. Anthemis maritima ; the bushy 

 Inula crithnuides, a composite with fleshy leaves and yellow flowers 

 suggestive of Furze bushes at a distance. It is upon the roots of this 

 plant that the peculiar flowering but fungoid parasite Cynomorium 

 coccineum grows. The Beetroot, Beta maritima, and the usual Saltworts, 

 &c, of the order Ghenopoeliacece are common. Pancratium maritimum 

 grows in the sands of Mellaha Bay, while the Posielonia Caulini {Gaulinia 

 oceanicei) grows at some little distance from the shore, remarkable for its 

 fibres being rolled by the waves into felted balls on the beach. 



5. Fields and Cultivated Areas. — Of field weeds the most pro- 

 minent are the following : The scarlet Pheasant's Eye {Adonis microcarpa) 

 and the var. citrina, with yellow flowers ; the purple Anemone coronaria ; 

 Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) ; our English Poppies as well as the 

 purple Petpaver setigerum, supposed to be the origin of the Opium Poppy 

 (P. somniferum), which is not known wild; a white but nearly scentless 

 Mignonette (Beseela alba.) The somewhat local plant in England, Lathyrus 

 Aphaca, is very common, as well as other leguminous plants, e.g. 

 Lathyrus arvensis, the wild form of the Field Pea, the crimson Lotus Tetra- 

 gonolobus, the white umbellifer Tordylium apulum, and the crimson Corn- 

 Salad Fedia Cornucopia. The Corn-Marigold, Chrysanthemum segetum, 

 is rather local, while the enormous Broom-Rape, Orobanche speciosa, with 

 white, lavender, or yellow flowers, and growing three feet in height, is 

 too common in beanfields, as it is also at Cairo. Both the blue and the 

 scarlet Pimpernel abound, though the former is somewhat earlier of the 

 two. The purple Gladiolus segetum and Allium nigrum, together with 

 two Ornithogalums, 0. narbonense and 0. arabicum, appear late in the 

 season together. The white Diplotaxis erucoides occurs everywhere 

 in waste places as well as fields. 



Aquatic Plants. — In most of the wieds there runs a small streamlet 

 in which aquatic and sub-aquatic plants occur. Thus Banunculus hctcro- 



