414 WILD FLOWEES OF 



other, named U. Gallii, by PLANCHON, from M. LE 

 G-ALL, a continental botanist, almost equals Europceus 

 in size, has rigid curved spines, but agrees with nanus 

 in its flowers, only that the wings are falcate and 

 incurved, a little longer than the keel, with hispid 

 legumes. This last is certainly the most abundant 

 Gorse in the west of England and "Wales, splendidly 

 adorning the hills with its orange-golden flowers in 

 August and September. I noticed it in the utmost 

 abundance in 1849 on the mountains between Bar- 

 mouth and Harlech. When the heath is fading and 

 becoming embrowned, and the ferns tinged with a 

 russet hue, the gorse flames upon the declivities, 

 among broken purple rocks and grey lichened stones, 

 like a blaze of light through coloured windows, giving 

 contrasts and harmonies only to be appreciated by 

 those who wander among such exciting scenes. 



We have oft pilgrimaged among them, and on the 

 stony ribs of the broken trappoid rocks that abruptly 

 rise upon the shore above the little terraced town of 

 Barmouth, at once look down upon the extensive 

 sandy beach there and the wide spread sea that darkens 

 in the distance, in the calm of evening. Its opaque 

 surface now slept without a ripple, and the estuary of 

 the river was silently and gradually becoming a waste 

 of sand. Inland Cadir Idris appeared perfectly clear, 

 while above the mountain a most stupendous white 

 cloud towered in air like the effusion from some vol- 

 cano, and beyond it were a few broken clouds of a 

 similar character. A singular wilderness of stones lay 

 before me in the hollows of the hill on which I stood 

 a rugged wilderness sterile indeed to the utilitarian 

 cultivator, but full of imaginative beauty to a pictorial 



