Our first walk, in the afternoon of the 7th, was in the agreeable society of Sir J. D. Hay, to Ravensrock, his summer residence, on the wooded slope of the Djebel Kebir, overlooking the straits. Near the city gate we passed the cemetery, where turbaned tombstones almost disappear amidst the copious growth of prickly pear (_Opuntia vulgaris_), and then went some way through dusty lanes between lines of American aloe (_Agave americana_), and quickset hedges surrounding gardens where palms, acacias, and a few poplars were the prevailing trees. As we cleared the enclosures, and got into irregular, open ground, where steep slopes of uncultivated land alternate with patches of tillage, our eyes were gladdened by the sight of many a bright southern flower, already blossoming abundantly, in spite of the weather which, till lately, had been unusually cold. Trefoils, Medicagos, vetches, and other leguminous plants were here the predominant forms, as they are everywhere in the spring flora of the Mediterranean region. As we began to ascend the flanks of the Djebel Kebir, the character of the vegetation changed. Where the ground has not been cleared to make a garden for some of the European residents, whose little villas are scattered over the slope, the ground is covered with masses of luxuriant shrubs, and climbing herbaceous plants, among which some familiar forms of the North are mingled with many exotic species. Thus we saw roses, brambles, bryony, honeysuckle, and white convolvulus holding their ground amidst masses of lentisk, myrtle, Phillyrea, Alaternus, dwarf prickly oak (_Quercus coccifera_), gum cistus, and the golden profusion of five or six species of the _Cytisus_ tribe that replace our native broom and gorse. After ascending several hundred feet by the roughest of paths, carried along a shaded gully, we entered through a gate the terraced garden whereon stands the house.