14 ritOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Not being pressed for time, and being anxious to see my friend, M. de 

 Brebisson at Falaise, we determined to forego the advantages of the rail- 

 way to Paris, and, crossing Normandy, to take up the great southern line 

 at Tours. This we easily accomplished by passing, in a small river 

 steamer, from Havre to Caen, and thence, by diligence, to Falaise and 

 Alenqon. In the latter old and curious town we found comfortable 

 apartments in the " Grand Cerf," an hotel not commended by Murray. 



From Alengon to Le Mans we availed ourselves of the branch of the 

 Paris and Brest Railroad, just completed between the former towns, and 

 passed by diligence from Le Mans to Tours. During this portion of our 

 journey I had no opportunity of herborizing, and could only note a few 

 incidents in passing through a country singularly like, in its hedgerows 

 and farm-yards, many of the agricultural districts of England. In the 

 corn-fields near Argenton and Seeze, a species of the grape hyacinth 

 (Muscari comosum), not found in Britain, together with the corn-cockle 

 (Agrostemma lithago), became notably conspicuous ; and as we ap- 

 proached the Chateau du Loir, half-way between Le Mans and Tours, 

 and descended into the valley of the Loire, the influence of a more 

 southern sun became obvious in the acacia hedges that lined the roads, 

 and the vineyards which occupied the fields. Mulberry trees were also 

 frequent ; but whether they were planted for ornament only, or for the 

 nourishment of the silkworms, I was not able to ascertain. One feature 

 in the home culture of the peasantry, so frequent in north Italy, struck me 

 as peculiar to this part of France, viz., the training of the vines on trellis- 

 work around the cottages and farm-yards. In districts more exclusively 

 devoted to the production of wine, this picturesque mode of growth is 

 rarely encouraged, the vine stalks being carefully pruned to the size of 

 low shrubs, and staked as raspberry bushes are in England : so that the 

 appearance of a wine country is formal and monotonous, and to the eye 

 of the traveller far inferior, in point of interest and beauty, to the hop 

 gardens of Kent and Sussex. We noticed throughout our journey across 

 Normandy that the orchards, so frequent in this district, were wholly 

 devoid of any promise of fruit. This failure of the apple crop excited 

 universal complaint, as cider, the common beverage of the people, had, 

 in consequence of the blight, become as dear as wine, and was quite 

 above the means of the ordinary purchaser. This blight of apples, and of 

 other pomaceous fruit, we afterwards found, had been general through- 

 out England and Ireland. 



A delay of three days at Tours enabled us to form some estimate of the 

 extent of the injuries inflicted by the late inundations of the Loire. The 

 river was only just subsiding within its banks, and had left on either 

 side vast tracts of mud and sand, which concealed from view the rich 

 vegetation and luxuriant crops that had a few days before promised 

 abundance to the cultivators of the soil. By ascending to the turrets of 

 Plessis les Tours, " the castellated den of the tyrant Louis XL," we were 

 enabled to obtain a view, extending for many miles, along the valleys of 

 the Cher and the Loire, and, as far as the eye could reach, nothing was 

 to be seen in the lower grounds but a waste of sand. Many years must 



