Dr. R. C. Alexander's Excursions in Uffler Styria. 95 



lis, Thlaspi montanum, Thesium alpinum, Veratrum album, Pedi- 

 cularis verticillata, Convallaria verticillata, Valeriana saxatilis, 

 Draba aizoides, Gentiana acaulis, Lilium bulbiferum, Potentilla 

 Clusiana, Helianthemum celandicum, Primula integrifolia, and all 

 that I had found on the Schockel. 



At an inn at the foot of the mountain the people spoke a jar- 

 gon that I had great difficulty in understanding, and they had as 

 much I suppose in comprehending me. The innkeeper told me, 

 begging my pardon, that I did not speak German very well, and 

 should stay a month or two with him in the Breitenau to learn 

 the language. I asked him if he did not think I had better op- 

 portunities in Gratz : Oh no, he said, they talk there according to 

 book, " nach der Schrift." 



The Lantsch is one of the stations given in books for the rare 

 Saxifraga hieracifolia on the authority of Vest, the late Professor. 

 It has never been found there, the specimen in Vest's herbarium 

 having been sent to him from the Carpathians by Zahlbruckner, 

 and recognised by him here in Gratz. Whether Vest wished to 

 have the credit of finding a rare plant, or from slovenliness had 

 got the Carpathian specimen mixed with Styrian ones accidentally, 

 I cannot say. He was the most untidy botanist ever known. 

 His specimens were never pressed, but put as they were into 

 bandboxes. Dr. Maly was commissioned after his death to ex- 

 amine the collection, and gives a most humorous account of it, — 

 a blackberry stuck with a pin upon a leaf, &c. The Saxifraga in 

 question has been found on the Reichart, but very sparingly. 



My next excursion was over the alps to Leoben. On the way 

 I found abundance of the Mazhringia heterophylla, but already out 

 of blossom. It was first discovered by M. Zehentner about three 

 years ago, and appears to be very common in ravines where the 

 stone is clay-slate, both in Styria and Carinthia. Phyteuma 

 scorzonerifolium and some common subalpine plants. 



From Leoben I made a very pleasant and remunerating excur- 

 sion up the Reiting. It is tedious to give a mere catalogue of the 

 plants collected on every separate mountain when there is nothing 

 particularly interesting about any of them, and I shall therefore 

 give a full list at the end. On this excursion, from incautiously 

 drinking cold milk and cold water, I suffered for the rest of the 

 summer from diarrhoea on all the alps that I attempted to 

 ascend. I believe the milk is the chief cause of this complaint, 

 and in Upper Styria there is nothing else to be got on the moun- 

 tains. The next that I explored was the Grimming, a very dif- 

 ficult and dangerous one, consisting of a brittle limestone that 

 splinters in the hand of the climber. During a hailstorm that 

 overtook us great masses came rolling down the ravines. I found 

 that day scarcely anything. On the Hoch Yolling, about 10,000 



