Throughout all this part of Marocco we were struck by the abundance of a dwarf plant of the artichoke tribe (_Cynara humilis_), which plays an important part in the domestic economy of the natives. It is almost stemless, and produces (at a later season) a large blue head of flower from the midst of a great tuft of much divided and very spiny leaves. Though not cultivated, it grows in great abundance in waste spots and the margins of fields on clay soil. Great piles of it were exposed for sale about the land gate of Tangier; and every morning whole processions of men, women, children, and donkeys, all laden with the same substance, were to be seen taking the same direction. It was painful to watch the women, half veiled, but not so as to disguise their age and ugliness, staggering onward, with huge bare legs and feet, under balloon-like loads of this spiny burden, tied up in a large coarse cloth. At this season the foliage serves as fodder for animals; somewhat later, when the heads are approaching the flowering state, they are extensively consumed as food for the human population, the end of the stem and the receptacle being eaten raw, as artichokes are in many parts of Southern Europe. Though, to judge from the extent of tillage, the population cannot be very small in this part of the country, we saw but few habitations, and those of the most miserable description—chiefly low mud hovels in small groups, seemingly built with a view to avoid observation in out-of-the-way spots, and never near to the main track. In this region the natives are of mixed race, partly Moors and partly of Bereber stock, descendants of Riff people, who have come down from their mountains to settle in the low country. We made our mid-day halt in a rich green level tract that lies between the first and lower hills, and a second and more considerable range which connects the Angera Mountains on the north with the higher mass of the Riff Mountains south of Tetuan. The drainage of this broad valley seems to flow southward till it falls into a considerable stream, descending from the high peaks of Beni Hassan and its neighbouring summits, that reaches the sea on the west coast some eighteen miles south of Cape Spartel. Our eyes were here gratified by the sight of comparatively fine trees, everywhere so scarce in Marocco. Of these the most conspicuous is a southern species of ash, very like the common tree. It is the _Fraxinus oxyphylla_ of Bieberstein, which extends from Southern Russia and the Levant to Spain and Marocco. The leaves and fruit are smaller, but in this district the tree rivals in stature our native British species. Poplars are common beside the streams, which are fringed by tall oleanders and willows, and in drier spots the fig, carob, and olive grow to a large size. The almond tree is also common, but does not appear to have naturalised itself.