Before long we began to ascend the slopes on the western side of the valley. The hill was covered with a dense growth of shrubs and low bushes, in great part evergreen, and had more the characteristic aspect of the region surrounding the shores of the Mediterranean than anything we had seen since leaving Tangier. But, although there were several identical species, the differences were very marked, and a single glance sufficed to show that we were far removed from the flora of North Marocco. The arbutus was the sole representative of its natural order, and no heath extends to the Great Atlas. The oak-scrub, in this and the neighbouring valleys, is all formed of some form of the evergreen oak, _Quercus lusitanica_, _Q. coccifera_, and the allied forms being all absent. The Alaternus is common to both regions, but a narrow-leaved form of _Rhamnus oleoides_ is here more common. Seven species of Cistus that adorn the hills in North Marocco are on the slopes of the Great Atlas reduced to two, and those the least conspicuous. On the other hand, the number of bushy Labiatæ was here largely increased, and included many peculiar species not known to grow elsewhere; and there were many _Umbelliferæ_, of which several were not yet sufficiently advanced for recognition. Of _Leguminosæ_, which everywhere play a conspicuous part in the flora of this region, the most striking novelty was a new _Coronilla_ (_C. ramosissima_, Ball), that forms a low bush, with very numerous slender intricate branches, covered at this season with rather small yellow flowers. In the midst of so much that was strange to the eye, it was pleasant to see two familiar European orchids, _Orchis pyramidalis_ and _Ophrys apifera_. There was something comical in the effect of our long _cortège_, with the escort swollen to-day by the addition of three sheiks of the valley, winding solemnly up the slope of the mountain, but thrown every now and then into general excitement by the appearance of some unpretending plant. The order ‘catch him flower’ would then issue to the native attendants, or one or other of the travellers would set foot to ground the better to inspect it. But any sense of incongruity between the pomp and circumstance of our mode of travelling and the simple nature of our favourite occupation was lost on the natives. To them one pursuit of civilised man is as unintelligible as another, and they can conceive no other serious occupation for men not forced to labour than war or hunting. It is a curious instance of the survival of barbarous instincts, that a good many people in our own islands, who imagine themselves to belong to the upper classes of society, have scarcely advanced a step beyond the mental condition of the Shelluh mountaineer.