BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 135 



six species of Mosses which he there collected, *' Determi- 

 nation douteuse, a cause du mauvais etat On ne peut 



herboriser dans les Pyrenees sans reraarquer avec etonnement 

 combien de Mousses se propagent sans jamais fructifier." 

 All this was anything but encouraging ; but now, when I can 

 say with certainty, that my collection includes numerous 

 rarities and even several novelties, and that in none of my 

 previous excursions have I gathered Mosses in finer fruit, the 

 modest conclusion at which I can arrive is, that having made 

 Mosses and Hepaticse the principal objects of research, it 

 was to be expected I should find more of them than any of 

 my predecessors, and that the season has surely proved 

 peculiarly favourable for maturing their fructification. One 

 great reason of the previous want of success has, however, 

 been, that no one appears to have sought at the proper 

 season; and I believe that I have myself collected more 

 Mosses, promising to be new, since the end of autumn, than 

 during all the summer months. 



I will now endeavour to give you a detailed account of my 

 wanderings, beginning from the beginning. 



I left Paris the day after the Fete du Roi (the 1st of May), 

 furnished with numerous letters to the Botanists of the South 

 of France, by Dr. Montagne and my kind friends in England. 

 I had a cold and dismal ride of forty-four hours from Paris 

 to Bordeaux, during which, I and my fellow-sufferers were 

 allowed to descend only twice, in order to snatch a hasty meal. 

 At Bordeaux, I had letters for MM. Grateloup and Des 

 Moulins ; the latter was, unfortunately, absent at his property 

 m the Dordogne, but from the former I received every atten- 

 tion. I examined all the Mosses and Hepatic® in his her- 

 barium, especially those from the Pyrenees and the centre of 

 kpain ; not very numerous, and all common, with the excep- 

 tion of the beautiful Hypnum aureum, from Madrid. His 

 Cr yptogamia, from the environs of Dax, (of which he has 

 Published a portion in the " Actes de la Societe Linneenne de 

 Bordeaux''), were more interesting, and included some curious 

 Marchantiacea. We had planned a short excursion, but the 



