and the PyreneeSf in 1 825. 161 



Betwixt Narbonne and Perpignan, to which we now bent our 

 course, is an excursion of two days. The greater part of the 

 first we spent in the neighbourhood of the old abbey of Font- 

 froide, once a fine building, though now the upper storey is con- 

 verted into a miserable auberge, and the lower into a stable. 

 Passing the village of St. Andre, we reached Donos, where, in- 

 stead of spending the night at the village, we were most hospi- 

 tably received at the chateau, the house of the proprietor of the 

 estate. The first part of this excursion was very rich. Besides 

 many species of small plants (among which may be mentioned 

 Piptatherum j)aradoxum, Melica ciliata, Lieflingia hispanica, 

 Briza maxima^ Cytinus hypoc'istus, Trrfblium Cherleri, and 

 Tolpis barhata) which we met with on the hills about Font- 

 laurier, we found, in the wood of Fontfroide, a great variety of 

 Cisti^ all of them in flower : here were Cistus albus, populifa- 

 lius /3, monspeliensls, crispus (both with red and rose coloured 

 flowers), lo7igi/blius, and several states of salvifollus, or perhaps 

 hybrids between that species and C, monspeliensis. The rarest 

 of all no doubt was C. lofigjfoUus : of this seldom more than a 

 single plant is found at a time, which alone would lead to a sus- 

 picion of its hybridity ; it may have sprung from the C. mons- 

 peliensis and C. populifolius. C. corbariensis, though indicated 

 here, we did not meet with. This is perhaps another hybrid 

 between C. salvifolius and C. populifolius. De Candolle has 

 made it, in his " Flore Fran^oise,"" a variety of C salvifolius^ 

 and Dunal, in the " Prodromus,"' though he retains it as a spe- 

 cies, places it close to that species. Its appearance is that of a 

 small-leaved variety of C. populifolius * ; but the peduncles ha- 

 ving no bracteae at their base, point out the propriety of Dunal's 

 arrangement, unless, indeed, it, as well as many other of the 

 CistinecEj were to be turned out as hybrids, and left to the care 

 of the florists. In addition to those mentioned as found at 

 Fontlaurier, I ought to notice the Helianthemum guttatum, 

 which here puts on so many appearances, that one at first would 



• Mr Bentham thinks that C, corbariensis arises from the young autumnal 

 shoots of C. populifolius beginning to flower, and that it is identical with this 

 latter species (Cat. p. 72.) 



APRIL JUNE 1827. L 



