Another species of the same genus (_Scilla hemisphærica_) is more ornamental, as are the two common asphodels. The slender iris (_I. Sisyrhynchium_ of Linnæus), whose delicate flower lasts only a few hours—opening one at a time on successive days, appearing about mid-day and withering in the afternoon—is very abundant. On reaching the hollow ground, where a slender stream runs through damp meadows, we were charmed by the delicate tint of a pale blue daisy that enamels the green turf. It is merely a slight variety of the little annual daisy (_Bellis annua_), so common in many parts of Southern Europe; but the blue tint does not seem to have been noticed elsewhere. The larger blue daisy, afterwards seen as one of the ornaments of the mountain region of the Great Atlas, was at first supposed to belong to the same species; but, besides that this is perennial, it shows other less obvious differences. It was on the slopes of the Djebel Kebir, where the stony ground is almost exclusively occupied by a dense mass of small shrubs, few of them rising more than three or four feet from the ground, but nearly all covered with brilliant flowers, that we first began to seize the really characteristic features of the North Marocco flora. A great variety and abundance of flowering perennials of shrubby habit is, indeed, a distinguishing feature of the whole Mediterranean region; but very little observation was needed to show that we were here in that well marked division that includes Southern Portugal, South-western Spain, and the opposite corner of Africa. This may be called for distinction the Cistus and Heath region; for though most of the same kinds of Cistus and Helianthemum extend as far as the south of France, and many species of heath inhabit the Atlantic coasts of Europe as far north as Connemara, it is only here that both these tribes flourish together, and give a prevailing character to the vegetation. Most conspicuous of all is the gum-cistus (_C. ladaniferus_), which in the Sierra Morena and the adjoining parts of Spain and Portugal obtains such predominance that for twenty miles together one may ride through a continuous thicket where the peculiar scent of the gum that covers the leaves and young branches is never absent. About Tangier the rich purple spot that usually adorns the base of the large petals is wanting, and the flowers show unmixed snowy white. Of the same tribe, besides several true _Cisti_, there are many species of _Helianthemum_. Of heaths, along with the commoner kinds (_Erica arborea_ and _E. scoparia_), we saw in abundance the rarer and more characteristic forms, _E. australis_ and _E. umbellata_. _E. ciliata_, one of our English rarities, is here very scarce, though it grows on the opposite side of the Strait. Our common heather (_Calluna vulgaris_) still holds its ground, but in a poor and stunted condition. The rhododendron of the East (_Rh. ponticum_), that is at home in