248 Botanical Notices from Spain. XXX. — Botanical Notices from Spain. By MoritzWillkomm*. [Continued from p. 192.] No. VII. Seville, December 30, 1844. On the 5th of November, after a continuance of the most dis-agreeable rains for nearly four months, I quitted Granada and tra-velled the next day to Klalaga. From the incessantly rainy and misty weather, I could see very little of the character of the vegeta-tion from the diligence. The only specimens which I had not before seen were some bushes of the cork-oak, which I noticed on the se-cond day of my journey. The environs of Malaga, situated as it is in a kind of paradise, — which in the spring is so rich in plants, — pre-sented now little or nothing, although the surrounding hills began already to be decked with fresh green and gave signs of approaching spring. Scilla maritima, long faded, unfolded everywhere its broad dark green leaves, in company with Asphodels ; but, with the excep-tion of the ever-blossoming Ahjssum marithmwi, L., and some late plants of Atractylis hiimilis, L., there was scarcely anything in bloom to be remarked. The gardens presented more flowers than the country around. Upon the balconies I saw frequently the splendid Eiipliurbia heterophylla , in the gardens Datura fastuosa, Brugmansia arborea. Verbena citriodora, Plumbago zeylanica, Cestrum nocturnum, Viola odorata. Calendula officinalis, &c., and roses in full bloom. In a garden without the city I noticed several gigantic bushes of banana, and a noble tree of Dracaena Draco 1 6 feet high, which grows here quite as in its own climate. The Alameda of Malaga, a public pro-menade, is planted with large trees of Gleditschia triacanthos, Melia Azedarach, Phytolacca dioica'^and Acacia Farnesiana. In the environs batatas and oranges are much grown, as well as Annona squamosa, whose spicy and much-prized fruit is everywhere sold under the name of Chirimoyas. As it was impossible, on account of the backward state of the sea-son, to study the flora of Malaga from nature, I was greatly desirous of being allowed to do this in the rich herbarium of the chemist Don Pablo Prolongo, whose name is so well known from Boissier's 'Voy-age ' : he is the only botanist at present in Malaga, and unfortu-nately, from great occupation of his time, he is able to do little for the natural history of his province. Don Prolongo has fortunately also preserved a portion of the herbarium of M. Felix Hiinseler, whose death three years ago deprived science of an able botanist ; the other portion of his collection is lost. At the desire of Don Prolongo, I undertook the agreeable task of putting in order his herbarium, which was in great confusion ; and this gave me an op-portunity of becoming generally acquainted with the character of the vegetation of Malaga, which I hope to study from nature also next April. Sometimes by myself, and sometimes accompanied by my friend, I made many excursions in the environs of the city du-♦ Translated from the Botauische Zeitung, May 9, 1S15.
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