One of the troubles that most try the patience of a botanical traveller here awaited us. As we had already assured ourselves, the spring climate of North Marocco is delightful to the human frame. The sky had been clear, the air warm, and only one or two slight showers of rain had fallen since we first landed on the coast; but the breezes, whether they travel eastward from the Atlantic, or westward from the Mediterranean, are laden with aqueous vapour nearly to the point of saturation, and nothing dries spontaneously by mere exposure to the air. Although our system of drying our plants by ventilating gratings makes it quite unnecessary to change the paper in such a climate as that of the Alps, or most parts of Europe, we now found that all the collections left at Tangier were suffering from damp, many specimens covered with mildew, and some hopelessly destroyed. Many hours on this and the following day were consumed in the endeavour to remedy the mischief. So far as structure is concerned, damp, when not too long continued, does not disorganise the tissues; but it finally removes the remaining freshness of colour which makes the beauty of a well-dried specimen. In the course of the day we made some purchases of Fez pottery, of which a large store is kept by a Jew dealer. This ware, which combines elegance and variety of form with vigorous geometrical designs and rough execution, is now well known to the devotees of the prevailing fancy for ceramics, who pay in London or Paris many times over the original price. Through the kindness of the British Consul, Mr. White, we obtained some small specimens of a very scarce variety of unglazed pottery, of which the decoration consists merely in dots of black and red, forming various patterns. These were said to be the handywork of two potters of Fez, who both died during the last cholera epidemic. During our seven days’ absence from Tangier, the vegetation had advanced very rapidly, and many plants had come into flower during the interval; so that we found abundant occupation, even in the immediate neighbourhood of the town. If we had wanted further evidence as to the character of the climate, it was afforded by the fact of our finding the British royal fern (_Osmunda regalis_), on bare sandstone rocks, close to the sea. In our proverbially damp climate it requires boggy or marshy soil to grow freely; but then, in spite of proverbs, we have fits of dry weather during the spring, and every now and then prolonged summer droughts, that forbid delicate ferns to flourish in exposed situations.