g NOTES OF A BOTANICAL TOUR 
sufficient coals to carry us to Falmouth with a fair wind. 
The wind proved adverse the whole way, and for a few days 
blew a hard gale, so that our stock of coal was exhausted be- 
fore we could make the English Channel; and there was no 
resource left but that of turning back and running before the 
wind, under such small sails as could be raised in the steamer, 
across the Bay of Biscay to Corunna, for a fresh supply of coal. 
In this dilemma, it was some consolation to anticipate a bota- 
nical day or two on Spanish ground; but scarcely was our 
anchor down before we had notice from the Spanish autho- 
rities that none of us could leave the ship, which must be put 
under quarantine, in consequence of having come from the 
West Indies. Could this have been foreseen, I should have 
spent a fortnight on shore in Fayal, and taken my passage in 
the succeeding mail-steamer; the Styx being about to pro- 
ceed to the more eastern islands of Terceira and Santo Miguel, 
to which I would not go, as it appeared very uncertain 
whether I should be able to land on them for botanizing. 
By coming home in the mail-packet Dee, I thus lost the — 
opportunity of autumnal botanizing in Fayal and merely 
begun the time in playing at “ pitch and toss ” in the Bay of 
iscay. 
^ B3 collections were left on board the Styx, to be brought 
to England in December; and in their absence, at present, I 
cannot speak with certainty about the specific names of seve- 
ral species that were novelties to me, and therefore not to be 
determined in the absence of botanical works, which are articles 
unknown in the Azores. With a few exceptions, all my spe- 
cimens belong to European genera. Several of the species 
are identical with those of the South of Europe ; others being 
plants of Madeira or the Canaries; and a few possibly unde- 
scribed kinds. Some of these latter species have been dis- 
tributed in Guthrie's collections under the specific names of 
“ Azorica” and “ Calderensis ;” others were probably not 
gathered by that botanist. 
We were rather late in reaching the Azores; that is, late 
_ for a botanist to commence collecting in islands whose win- 
h a. 
LEN 
