BOTANICAL, INFORMATION. 1 3J 



therefore, surprising, that encountering them at Pau, of a 

 still more marked character, the cough, shortness of breath, 

 and other distressing symptoms, which I had brought with 

 me from my native country, should still cling to me; it was 

 not, in fact, until I got into the mountains, that I expe- 

 rienced any amelioration of health. 



To return, however, to the Botany of the neighbourhood 

 of Pau, which I investigated diligently vmder all disadvan- 

 tages. The Phanerogamous vegetation scarcely differs from 

 that of the West of England and Ireland, and I observed few 

 species that were new to me. One of the most interesting, 

 was the elegant Phalangium bicolor, which I found on a 

 heathy tract of ground, called the Landes of Pau, growing in 

 company with Avena alpina and Thorei ; the latter, a fine, 

 reedy-looking plant, with something of the habit of its near 

 ally, A. elatior (Arrhenatherum avenaceum), but wanting the 

 polygamous flowers and torulose root of that species, and 

 having radical leaves of extraordinary length, with mar- 

 gins that become involute in drying. Near the same place, 

 I found a Cirsium, which much puzzled me ; it agreed with 

 C. tuberosum, All. (C. bulbosum, DC.) 3 in every respect 

 out the root, which sent out long creeping suckers, attaining 

 sometimes the length of two feet, and then shooting up into 

 plants which extended themselves in the same way, almost 

 a d infinitum, so that a space of an acre of ground was matted 

 with their interwoven roots. I am now pretty well convinced 

 that it is that species, modified by the locality, (soft black 

 mud), for I find that the suckers (* fibres/' DC), which have 

 not attained the surface of the soil, are " renfle'es vers leur 

 °ngine/' as stated by De Candolle ; or rather, as Koch more 

 accurately describes them, "incrassata basi apiceque atte- 

 nuata." The Gave de Pau furnished a few Alpines, brought 

 down by its waters, and fixed on its banks ; amongst these, 

 Scrophularia canina, the beautiful Astragalus Monspessulanus, 

 Wo or three Linarias, &c. My other acquisitions were Ra- 

 nunculus nemorosus, Saxifraga hirsuta, Trifolium glomeratum, 

 brinus atpinus, Orchis laxiflora, Serapias Lingua and cordi- 



