ana the Pyrenees^ in 1825. 75 



loosened about their roots, with a pioche or mattock, twice or 

 thrice a-year, to allow the scanty rain that falls, or the water 

 used in irrigation, to penetrate to their fibres. A less stony 

 and more argillaceous soil continues to Avignon, and appears 

 to be well adapted to the vines : these between Paris and Ly- 

 ons must be supported by stakes, but here they have enormous 

 roots, and short arborescent stems, and require no supports." 



I arrived at Avignon between 2 and 3 o^clock, and found 

 that my friend Mr Bentham had come here from Montpellier 

 to meet me. We went together to M. Requien"'s. This gentle- 

 man, inter alia, directs the public garden at Avignon, but, be- 

 sides being a good and active botanist, attends also to other 

 parts of natural history. His library of botanical works is the 

 best in the south of France, and his herbarium is exceedingly 

 rich in European, but particularly in French plants. His libe- 

 rality as a botanist is also very different from what one often 

 meets with. He seems to have even more desire to give than 

 to receive, — and he has the power of giving. Upwards of a 

 month"'s excursion made to a distance every summer for these 

 some years past, has enabled him to lay up a stock of much 

 that may give pleasure to the botanist. Switzerland, the Gre- 

 noble Alps, lies Hieres, Piedmont, Marseilles, Toulon, Nar- 

 bonne, and lately Corsica, have all been examined by him. Be- 

 sides, his residence at Avignon, in the heart of one of the rich- 

 est parts of France for plants, was sufficient itself to furnish 

 him with ample provision for his friends. 



SOtk March. — " Requien having made up a party to-day for 

 Vaucluse, we set off from Avignon at 6 o'clock, in a calache 

 and cabriolet. It is about twenty or twenty-three miles dis- 

 tant. The rocks are very steep, and encircle the fountain, so 

 that the water has no egress in the dry seasons, when the foun- 

 tain is low, but by percolating the rocks ; it consequently is for 

 some distance lost, but again appears a little below in a large 

 stream. Farther down some other streams gush out of the 

 rocks on both sides ; so that, in the course of one or two hun- 

 dred yards, a large, deep, and wide river, the Sorgues, is 

 formed ; but this, again, is soon afterwards made to split into 

 eight or ten branches, each of which serves, in their course, to 

 turn mills, or irrigate the fields during the droughts of sum- 



2 



