356 Mr Arnott's Toiir to the South of France, 



bank, without observing any thing worthy of notice, till we ap- 

 proached the village of Serdynia. On the mountain close to 

 this is found the Onopordum pyrenaicum ; and, soon after quit- 

 ting the village, we met with the curious Achillcea chamcemeli- 

 Jbliay Pourr. growing on the bank on the right. This species 

 Lapeyrouse has unfortunately described three times in his Flora 

 of the Pyrenees : it is his A, chamtEmelifolia, A. capiUata, and A. 

 falcata. This latter state of it has the segments of the leaves 

 more or less curved backwards, and has been sometimes given 

 to botanists by Lapeyrouse himself with the name of A. recur- 

 vifolia attached. From Serdynia to Olette, where we break- 

 fasted, we did not observe any other plant that interested us. 



I have already alluded to the tremendous storms that had 

 occurred every day for some time past. Although the morn- 

 ings were unclouded, and the sun shone forth in full power, the 

 sky began to darken about two oVlock, and thunder, lightning, 

 and rain raged with the utmost fury for about two or three 

 hours, after which we usually had delightful evenings. Accus- 

 tomed to judge of the violence of the storms according to the 

 extent of our exposure to them, we, having been the greater 

 part of the day in the house, had allowed that of yesterday to 

 pass almost unheeded. To-day, however, about Olette we were 

 led to understand that its violence had been much greater, and 

 of longer duration, than those of any of the previous days.~ The 

 effects indeed were tremendous. Huge masses of stone had 

 been brought down from the hills by the torrents of rain, and 

 now lay scattered along the road : the upper soil of the vine- 

 yards had been completely washed away, while the vines them- 

 selves lay scattered in every direction. The peasantry already 

 saw the hopes of a harvest blasted. 



Leaving Olette. the road again crosses the Teta, and the ascent 

 becomes very steep, until we arrive at the Graux d'Olette, a ro- 

 mantic spot, where we found Buffonia perennis, and the narrow- 

 leaved variety of Centraullius ruber (C. angustifoUus of au- 

 thors). From this the river begins to present several small but 

 beautiful cascades, and although the road descends a little at 

 the Graux, it soon again begins to ascend rapidly. Passing the 

 village of Thues, we saw Ligusticiim (Cnidium Spr). pyrenai- 

 cum abundant ; and towards Fontledrouse and Cassagne we 



