98 Dr. R. C. Alexander's Excursions in Upper Styria, 



cept his housekeeper that understands German. The friend who 

 accompanied me was too zealous a catholic to climb a mountain 

 on Frauen Tag, and so I went up alone and found the beautiful 

 Campanula Zoysii, Saxifraga squarrosa, Sieb., and Cirsium car- 

 niolicum, Scop. The latter was a new discovery for the flora of 

 Styria. The rain compelled me to return long before reaching 

 the top. Astrantia carniolica and Hieracium porrifolium are 

 very abundant there. Next day was a grand dinner at the cler- 

 gyman's, and two vicars from neighbouring mountain parishes 

 came to assist at some solemnity and dined with us. Among 

 other dainties was bear's meat. One of the two visitors was a 

 young man much taken with botany. He told me I should do 

 him a great favour if I could induce any friend to come and stay 

 with him a whole summer. He has nobody but his clerk to 

 speak to, knows all the mountains well, and would gladly accom- 

 pany his visitor on all his rambles. I asked him if he would 

 plague himself with a foreigner who could not speak much 

 German. He said he would welcome anybody who came as a 

 botanist. Sieber was several summers on that part of the range 

 called the Loibl, and to judge from the herbaria of friends who 

 have explored it, there are no mountains in Austria that would 

 better repay the trouble of searching them. 



Returning from Sultzbach by the magnificent Schwarzenbach 

 valley, I found Campanula thyrsoidea tolerably abundant. 



Since my return to Gratz I have made one short trip to Feis- 

 tritz, more as an afternoon's drive than an excursion, but found 

 Helianthemum fumana and Mentha gentilis; and since then, in 

 company with Dr. Maly, Falcaria Rivini, Galium boreale and 

 parisiense. 



The principal Plants collected in Styria, south of the Drave, in 

 1842, with a few from the neighbouring provinces. 



