16^4 Mr Arnott's Tour to the South of' France. 



ctgnuS'Casttts grew every where about Bagnols ; but the most 

 interesting plant in the whole valley was Gymnogramma lepto- 

 phylta^ Desv. The mosses were few in number, and not in 

 very good condition. I was, however, enabled to recognize Bar- 

 framia stricta, Schw. by its single peristome. We ought to 

 have found Nonea lutea on the rocks about Collioure, and Are- 

 nar'ia pephides *, La Peyr. about PaulHlas, but returned to 

 Collioure without seeing either. 



On the 28th, having previously ascended the Montague Verte 

 by N. D. de Consolation, and procured Malva Tournefortii, 

 Alliu7n triquetrum^ Medicago siiffrutkosa (a new and distinct 

 variety) Cytisus Ir'iflorus and candicans, we returned to Per- 

 pignan. Thus finished this rich excursion : all the best plants 

 were in good condition, and instead of three, there would have 

 been sufficient employment for eight days. The whole chain of 

 the Alberes must be stored with species of great rarity, and the 

 northern must be even far inferior to the south or Spanish side, 

 which we had not time to visit. 



^9th May. — This day was Charles X. crowned, and conse- 

 quently kept as a day of festivity. It is almost worth while to 

 go to Perpignan to see their national dances ; and I regret ex- 

 ceedingly I can give no idea of them by description. I shall 

 never forget when, as if by the touch of a magician, all the fe- 

 males were, at a particular part of the tune, seated on the shoul- 

 ders of the men, and then put down again on terra jirma^ 

 the evolutions in the dance being uninterrupted. In the after- 

 noon, a few halfpence and sugar-plums were scattered among 

 the peasantry. The town of Perpignan is not handsome, but 

 the promenades are fine.;:: The features of the common people, 

 as may be expected from the greater heat, are much more swar- 

 thy than at Montpellier : several females were almost black, and 

 had ev«n the thick nose and lips of the African negro. 



( To he continued.) 



• This, so far from being the Ar. peploides of Linnaeus, does not even be- 

 long to the same natural order : it is a Hagea or Polycarpon^ for these genera 

 are certainly not distinct. M . Gay of Paris, who has given me a specimen 

 from the rocks at Portvendres, named it Polycarpon pentandrum ; it is closely 

 allied to Hagea polycarpoides. 



