Mr Arnotfs Tour to the Pyrenees. ^tS% 



found everywhere Galium pyrmaicum and PetrocdUis pyre- 

 naica (which, from its cunejiform and trifid leaves and red 

 flowers ought never to have been ranked with Draha) ; and 

 again, on our descent, we met with Vicia pyrenaica, and a very 

 few specimens of Serratula humilis* and Astragalus purpu- 

 reus. 



By the time we had got again to the bottom of the first ridge, we 

 perceived the commencement of a thunder-storm, and we there- 

 fore resolved to descend as rapidly as possible ; indeed, so ex- 

 peditious were we, that we performed the distance to Seo in less 

 than two hours and a quarter, which we have been informed re- 

 quired at least five hours. The usual time for the ascent and 

 descent is about eighteen hours. A French officer of the gar- 

 rison at Seo had a short time ago accomplished the whole in 

 twelve, but received little belief from his brotiier officers. We 

 had started at a quarter before five in the morning, and re- 

 turned a few minutes before three, having been only ten hours 

 absent, and having had sufficient time to breakfast, and to bota- 

 nize out of the straight road : one who is not so engaged may do 

 the whole in eight or nine hours. I mention this as an estima^ 

 tion of the distance of Mont Cady, for such as may be inclined 

 to make the excursion. There is. no occasion, as one is advised 

 at Seo, to spend the night on the mountain. The road up is 



• The genus Serratula has been of late much divided, but perhaps Saussu- 

 rea and Rhaponticum are the only two that deserve to be retained. Klasea 

 and Stemmacantha of Cassini are scarcely worth notice. As to Malacacanihus 

 of Fischer, distinguished by the linear squarrose scales of the involucre, and 

 including Serratula mollis, ct/anoides, polychnos, and alqta, "W., it differs in no 

 other respect from the Serratula ; and that character is impaired by S. mucro- 

 nata, Desf. in which the tips of the scales are reflexed. Some species of Set- 

 ratfila, as S. humilis, have the scales patent, while in others they are close 

 pressed. There is, therefore, a gradation from those in which the scales are 

 close pressed to those in which they are squarrose. I cannot resist taking 

 notice here of Cassini's characters. That he is an acute observer no one will 

 deny ; but he ajjpears more inclined to describe plants as they are, as distinct 

 species or genera, than to observe their variation. The genus MtUisia, for ex- 

 ample, has l>een split by him into three, distmguished by the appendage of 

 the scales of the involucre; but these scales are certain modifications of the 

 leaves of the plant, and the more the plant tends to throw out cirrhi from 

 the leaves, the more evident is Ihe appendage to the scales ; but between M. 

 infiexa and lineari/olia there are such transitions, as to create a doubt how far 

 these species are distinct, much less can they be put into difi'erent genera. 



