are very common in the warmer parts of the Mediterranean region, and the stiff spiny points of the numerous branches are most effective in tearing the clothing and the skin of anyone who approaches them. We followed a tolerably good cattle track which wound upwards to the right, in a southerly direction, towards the upper part of the mountain. Before reaching its middle height, on some crags facing towards Tetuan, we found a peculiar saxifrage (_S. Maweana_), first collected by Mr. Webb more than forty years before, but which, with several others, remained unknown and undescribed in his Herbarium. Maw refound the plant in 1869, and has successfully cultivated it, along with many other Marocco rarities, in his garden in Shropshire. On the same rocks, besides numerous interesting plants not yet in flower, we gathered a curious crucifer (_Succowia balearica_) which must flower very early as the fruit was already approaching maturity. As we really desired nothing more than to be let to wander about on the mountain according to our own fancy, we were rather pleased than otherwise when our escort of four soldiers with the guide, seeming to think that they had done enough of mountaineering after an ascent of some two thousand feet, proceeded to instal themselves, with the horses, who enjoyed a day of rest, in a pleasant spot, and showed no sign of pushing the enterprise farther. A steep slope now led us up to the rocky ridge of the mountain commanding a wide view, and overlooking a deep glen on the seaward side of the mountain. Here, in spite of the early season, we found several plants in flower that excited in us a lively interest. A little polygala, with rich purple red flowers, reminds one much of the red variety of _P. chamæbuxus_ that is often seen in the Eastern Alps, but appears to be quite distinct. A chrysanthemum, differing little from an Algerian species, was our first acquaintance amongst a group of forms that is especially characteristic of the flora of the Great Atlas. But we were, perhaps, still more pleased to find on these heights, far removed from the nearest known station, some descendants of a suffering race that must, at some remote period, have been widely spread throughout Europe, the bright-flowered _Ranunculus gramineus_. Although it is still found at several places in France, in a few spots in the Alps, and in Spain, it appears to have disappeared from the Apennines within the last two centuries, and to be everywhere losing ground. When the rapacity of collectors shall have reduced it elsewhere to the condition of a vegetable Dodo, future travellers may rejoice that it has found a refuge in this corner of Africa. The distribution of the genus _Ranunculus_, in nearly every known country, supplies many topics for thought and inquiry. There are very few regions where the unbotanical traveller fails to recognise the familiar buttercup of his youth; yet, if he examines the plants, he will find well-marked differences in the