140 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



him at St. Sever, and stating as an inducement, " La saison 

 et le temps ne vous permettent pas d'aborder au moins d'uu 

 mois les Pyrenees." This was so much in accordance with 

 what I had just experienced, that I thought I could not 

 spend my time more profitably than in the company of one 

 of the most distinguished naturalists in France. Ac- 

 cordingly, a few evenings afterwards, I found myself seated 

 in the diligence for Orthez, and the following day I arrived 

 at St. Sever, where I met with a most hospitable reception 

 from Dr. Dufour and his amiable family, and the eight days 

 I passed in their company were certainly as agreeable as any 

 that have followed. Leon Dufour, whom Fries calls " Pere- 

 grinator Hispanise insignis, 5 ' is 64 years of age ; in person 

 rather tall, his strongly marked features bearing traces of the 

 toils and travels of his earlier years, and also evidencing to a 

 physiognomist a mind accustomed to sustained and profound 

 train of thought. Many years ago, his fame as a Botanist, 

 and especially as a Lichen ologist, was pretty generally 

 diffused ; but, for the last twenty years, his daily study has 

 been the anatomy and physiology of insects, and his elaborate 

 treatises on these subjects have gained him lasting renown. 

 Botany is, however, still his amusement, and the company of a 

 Botanist gave him apparently as great pleasure as if that had 

 been his sole pursuit. All our time within- doors was passed 

 in examining the mosses and lichens in his herbarium ; the 

 former tribe not including any species remarkably interest- 

 ing, but the latter exceedingly rich, especially in original 

 Friesian and Acharian specimens, and manuscript remarks 

 of those celebrated lichenologists. Even at present there is 

 no one better acquainted with the lichens of the Pyrenees 

 than Dufour, and no guide in those mountains is more famili ar 

 with the localities than he, which may be easily believed when 

 it is stated that during more than forty years, he has been in 

 the habit of frequently visiting them. His " renseignemens,' 

 except as related to the mosses, have accordingly been of 

 great service to me : but with regard to my favourite plants, 

 though I have met with several persons ready enough to 

 give advice, I have found none who had the slightest idea 



