118 MR. JOSEPH woods' NOTES OF A BOTANICAL 



Pidicaria odora is pretty plentiful in one part ; Euphorbia dulcis 

 and Thesium pratense may be met with, and a Daucus just coming 

 into flower, which perhaps may be different from D. Carota. I 

 also observed an Ophrys with a short forward point like that of 

 O. arachnites, but it was entire, rather favouring the idea that this 

 is only a variety of O. apifera ; but I did not see any plant of O. 

 aranifera, and I am not disposed to believe it a hybrid. 



On the 5th June I went up to a village called Las Corales, and 

 on the 11th made a hasty trip to Eeinosa. On the 21st I was again 

 at Reinosa and went on to Pozazal. On the 25th I went to Alar, 

 and on the 1st July returned to Santander. There is a railway 

 now in progress from Santander to Alar, whence perhaps it may 

 at some future period be continued to Valladolid and to Madrid. 

 The part now completed occupies the summit level, at least as far 

 as the road to Valladolid is concerned. It extends about thirty 

 miles from E/cinosa to Alar, and at Pozazal (pronounced Pothathal) 

 the highest station attains an elevation of 3300 feet above the Bay 

 of Biscay. Reinosa is forty-two miles from Santander, but it is 

 expected that the railway for the greater part of this distance will 

 be completed in the autumn of 1858. The remaining portion, which 

 includes the most difficult part of the ascent, will require at least 

 another year. The present journey to Eeinosa is performed by dili- 

 gences, passing through Torre la Vega, which will not be touched 

 by the railway. Torre la Vega is situated in a beautiful valley 

 well watered and well cultivated, with a mixture of trees, and sur- 

 rounded by hills of varied forms, generally woody, sometimes 

 rocky. It is seated in the valley of a little river called the Bisaya, 

 the course of which we ascend through a narrow gorge to Las 

 Caldas, a place, as its name implies, of hot springs. These rise 

 just where the limestone rock makes its appearance, from under 

 the beds of a hard sandstone. This limestone rises into moun- 

 tains of considerable elevation, forming the northern boundary of 

 the valley of Las Corales, in which the lower hills are mostly of a 

 loamy soil, attributed to the greensand. Las Caldas would be a 

 good botanical station for a few days, as these three soils would 

 each contribute some peculiar plants, the best being probably in 

 connexion with the limestone ; but my stay there was very short : 

 Nasturtium pyrenaicum, Sedum dasyphyllum, Ligusticwn pyre- 

 ncemn, Eryngium Bourgati, Galium sylvaticum, and Valantia his- 

 pida being my chief prizes, together with several species found in 

 England on the chalk and on the mountain limestone. 



I was three or four days at Las .Corales — not, I think, a parti- 



