HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



145 



A BOTANICAL EXCURSION IN SWITZERLAND. 



fFTER a few days 

 botanising at Bex 

 about the middle 

 of May last year, 

 we found that 

 vegetation in the 

 mountains behind 

 the village was 

 not sumcientlyad- 

 vanced for us to 

 add many plants 

 to our collections, 

 and so we decided 

 to make an ex- 

 cursion to the 

 warm upper 

 Rhone valley for 

 the three days 

 that remained 

 available. 

 Making an early 

 start and catching the first train, we arrived at 

 Martigny at seven, and while breakfast was preparing 

 in the humble but very comfortable inn near the 

 station we looked over some rough ground close by 

 and gathered Sisymbrium Sophia and Echinospermum 

 lappula. Breakfast over, we started about eight for 

 Branson, some three miles off, each carrying a good- 

 sized package of drying-paper, for in so hot a locality, 

 where even so early in the year the thermometer 

 stood at mid-day at 86° in the shade, plants soon 

 wither if kept long in the vasculum. 



En route, Euphorbia Gerrardiana, Hippopha'e 

 rhamnoides and Salix triandra were gathered on 

 the banks of the Rhone, then Hyoscyamus niger, and 

 at the foot of the hill, near Branson, Medicago minima, 

 Silenc otites, Senipervivum montanum and arach- 

 noideum, Thalictrum minus, Orlaya grandiflora, and 

 Hclianthemum Fumana. 



To give a good idea of the vitality of the Semper- 



vivums, a root was gathered here not yet in flower, 



which after remaining over three weeks in the vasculum 



flowered when planted in a London garden. Arrived 



No. 283.— July 1888. 



at Branson, we deposited the paper in a small inn 

 and mounted the hill. Helianthemum salicifolium, 

 Vulpia pseudonymus, Diauthus sylvestris, Orchis 

 eriophora, Carex nitida, and Herniaria glabra were 

 quickly found, then Anemone montana and, further 

 on, at the corner of the hill round which the Rhone 

 turns northward, Adonis vernalis, not yet in flower, 

 Oxytropis Halleri, H. pilosa, and Biscutella l<zvigata, 

 all in fruit. Descending to the foot of the hill 

 several Salices were found, and then remounting the 

 rocks, which by this time were quite hot to the touch, 

 we found Vicia onobrychioides and V. tenuifolia, both 

 allied to our V. cracca, but the former of the two 

 with larger and fewer flowers on the stalk Onobry- 

 chis arcnaria, Astragalus onobrychis , and Potentilla 

 recta. Further on, in a vineyard, Aji/ga Genevensis, 

 and then above Branson, in a rough pasture, Lathy rus 

 sphizricus. Descending to the village, we emptied 

 our vasculums, which by this time were quite full, 

 and arranging the plants in paper we shouldered 

 our packs and started off for the next village, Fully. 

 En route we gathered Herniaria ciliata, Trigonella 

 Monspeliaca, Eruca sativa, Ononis altissima, Bitnias 

 erucago, and a crucifer with enormously long flower- 

 stalk, Calepina corvini. 'The last two named are 

 natives of a more southern latitude, which have found 

 a congenial resting-place in this hot valley. In a 

 wood above Fully we gathered^ Veronica teucrium, 

 Astragalus glycyphyllos, and Vicia pisiformis, the last 

 unfortunately not in flower. At Fully we tried in 

 vain to get something to eat, but were obliged to 

 content ourselves with a little fairly good red wine, 

 and started off quickly for Saillon, some few miles 

 further on. Our route now lay only the right bank of 

 the Rhone and yielded very little of interest. Near 

 Saillon we stopped a short time to look at some 

 recently opened quarries of a stone called Cipolin. 

 High up the rocks was a small black speck, the 

 mouth of the quarries from which enormous blocks 

 of stone are brought down on a tramway, that from 

 below looks almost perpendicular. At the foot of 

 the trams are the workshops where the stone is 

 worked up into mantel-pieces, monumental stones, 



H 



