The so-called Club House, which ranks as the head inn, being already full, we put up at the Fonda Española, and had no cause for complaint, either as to food or accommodation. On the morning of the 17th we had notice that the steamer for Tangier was to start at noon; and, after laying in additional stores of drying paper, and enjoying a delightful morning stroll along the road to Europa Point, we were ready at the appointed time. After more than the usual delay, we at length set our faces towards the African shore with a fresh SW. breeze in our faces. Few places in the world can show a greater variety of fine atmospheric effects than the Strait of Hercules. To-day the horizon behind us was clear, while the hills that bound the entrance from the Atlantic were veiled in thin haze; and, as the sun sank low, a strange purple hue suffused one-half of the sky. The skipper managed to arrive late in the roads at Tangier, and we found that, although a bribe to the official of the port might obtain admission within the walls, our baggage could not be landed until the following morning. We therefore decided to sleep on board the little steamer, and at length, on the morning of the 18th, we returned to breakfast at the Victoria Hotel. Maw had made good use of his time. In a first excursion to the ‘Lakes’ he had failed to find a beautiful iris, which we had first admired on Sir J. D. Hay’s dinner-table, and which we had taken to be the _Iris tingitana_ of Boissier and Reuter. Not easily foiled from his purpose, Maw returned two days later, and succeeded in his object. Subsequent examination has convinced us that the plant growing near the lakes is a luxuriant form of the _Iris filifolia_ of Southern Spain, though intermediate between that and _I. tingitana_. The latter may perhaps be an extreme form of the same plant, but is yet little known, and had not, as far as we know, been brought into cultivation until carried to England by Maw. Our plant, which is one of the most beautiful of a beautiful group, is figured, under the name _Xyphion tingitanum_, in the 98th volume of the ‘Botanical Magazine,’ No. 5981. Nothing can surpass in the scale of rich sombre decoration the gradations of dark purple and brown velvet that enrich the petals.