The scarcity of trees in this country is mainly due to the mischievous interference of man. The same ignorant greed of the herdsman, who to procure a little meagre herbage for goats sets fire to wide tracts of brushwood, that has reduced whole provinces of Spain to a nearly desert condition, has been equally busy and equally effectual in Marocco. The evergreen oak, which might produce much valuable timber, is the chief indigenous tree of this country; but, except on the rocky western declivity of the hill above Cape Spartel, few here arrive at a moderate growth, and the same is true of the Portuguese oak (_Quercus lusitanica_). The latter, indeed, never attains a considerable stature; but, where preserved from damage, it forms thickets some twenty or thirty feet in height, and, if duly protected, would help to preserve the hilly districts of this region from being annually parched by the summer sun. One of the shrubby evergreen oaks of this country (_Quercus coccifera_, L.), whose dark green spiny leaves are more like those of a holly than of an ordinary oak, might perhaps be successfully introduced in the south-western parts of the British islands. Its very dense foliage would make it valuable as a screen, and it produces a good effect when mixed with other shrubs. Although the distance did not exceed ten or twelve miles, we had so much to do in filling our tin boxes and portfolios that the sun was sinking in the Atlantic as we reached the lighthouse at Cape Spartel. It is impossible not to feel some interest in this structure that for so many a mariner marks the limit of the great continent, more than three times the area of Europe, that remains, in spite of all the efforts of modern enterprise, the chief home of all that is strange and mysterious and unknown in the world. It represents, too, the only concession that the Moor has made to the demands of modern civilisation; for the building has been raised at the cost of the Sultan of Marocco, though the expense of its maintenance is shared between the four Powers, England, France, Italy, and Spain. The representatives of these States at Tangier form a board of management, and each in turn undertakes the actual control and inspection of the building. It was by an especial favour, and on the ground of our scientific pursuits, that we received permission from the Spanish Consul-General, then Acting Commissioner, with the concurrence of his colleagues, to lodge for the night within the building. It stands on a rocky platform some 250 feet above the sea. The massive tower, or pharos, that bears the lantern, is about eighty feet in height, and, with the annexed building, is enclosed by a strong wall, forming an outer court. The interior of the building is singularly picturesque. An inner octagonal court, surrounded by pillared arcades, supported on round, slightly stilted arches, with a fountain of cool spring water in the middle, gives access to