MR. JOSEPH wood's NOTES OF A BOTANICAL RAMBLE. Ill 



Notes of a Botanical Eamble in the North of Spain. By Joseph 

 "Wood, Esq., F.L.S. In a Letter addressed to E. Kippist, 



Esq., Libr.L.S. 



[Read November 19th, 1857.] 



Mt dear Kippist, — I promised to give you some account of my 

 botanizing in Spain, but I have done so little that I am afraid 

 you will think it hardly deserving a reading at the Linnean 

 Society. As we grow old, little obstacles, which we should at 

 once have overruled in our youth, become serious hindrances ; and 

 some slight attacks of disease, my ignorance of the language, and 

 still more, the impossibility in most cases of having a bedroom to 

 myself, combined to limit my exertions. 



"We went by rail to Bayonne, and hastened our journey in order 

 to proceed by a steam-packet which professes to pass weekly from 

 Bayonne to Santander, and which was to leave the former place 

 on Tuesday the 5th of May. On our arrival we found that it 

 certainly would not start before Thursday. "We therefore availed 

 ourselves of a diligence just then on the point of setting off for 

 Bilbao, where we were taught to expect another steamboat for 

 Santander, "We were again disappointed. The boat had been 

 detained at Santander for some repairs. There is a diligence 

 from Bilbao to that place, but as it is twenty-six hours on 

 the road, while the steamer occupies only six, it seemed worth 

 while to wait a little. "We did not get away till Sunday the 

 10th of May, and arrived at Santander in the middle of a violent 

 storm. Our return to Bayonne was hardly more fortunate, since 

 a hole in the boiler obliged us to stop at Passages. We may 

 hope that all these uncertainties will be remedied as the rail- 

 way to Madrid advances, and the port of Santander becomes of 

 more importance. 



The country about Bilbao consists of woody or heathy hills in 

 a somewhat loamy soil, belonging, it is said, to the lower chalk or 

 upper greensand, — a formation which extends over a large portion 

 of Erance and all along the north of Spain. We had a pleasant 

 walk at Bilbao, but not very rich in botany. Lithospermum pro- 

 stratum exhibits frequently on the banks its bright blue flowers ; 

 JErica polytrichifolia occurs here and there, and E. vagans almost 

 everywhere. Its flowers had not yet made their appearance, 

 whilst those of JE. polytricTiifolia were already dried up. Ddbcecia 

 polifolia, Smilax aspera, AspJiodelus alius, Quercus Ilex, Euphorlia 

 procera, and one or two plants of Cistus salvifoUus, make up the 



