and the Pyrenees^ in 1825. 243 



distinct and much more beautiful species than that of Britain, 

 which is tlie F. media of De CandoUe, and perhaps only a va- 

 riety of F. officinalis)^ Cneorum tricoccum, gigantic specimens 

 of Olypeola jonthlaspi, &c. rewarded us for our morning's drive. 

 We had gone with M. Bouchet in his carriage, and he saved us 

 much time, as he had frequently herborized here himself, and 

 knew the localities. M. Bouchet's herbarium is perhaps the 

 best in the south of France. Among other rarities, it contains 

 specimens of all the plants collected by Broussonet in the north 

 of Africa and the Canary Isles. 



On the 15th, we botanized towards Pont Juvenal, where we 

 found a few rare native plants. Nearly all, however, that are 

 found here, ought to be received cu7n nota. Every year a great 

 quantity of wool is brought from Africa : it is landed at Pont 

 Juvenal (called also Port Juvenal, for vessels come up this 

 length to unload), and is spread out here to be bleached. Not 

 a few seeds of African plants remain attached to the wool, and 

 are thus sown ; and the following year, when the ground for 

 the wool is changed, they spring up. M. Delile, by searching 

 diligently every fortnight or three weeks, has been so fortunate 

 as to meet with several plants naturalized no where else in Eu- 

 rope, and some of them scarcely at all known to the botanist. 

 We did not observe any of them. These plants ought not to 

 be admitted into the French Flora, but ought to constitute a se- 

 parate one, tliis spot being actually a wild garden. Notwith- 

 standing, I fear that Stipa micrantha, Desf Psoralea pal(ES- 

 tina *, and several others, are no where else found in France. 



Up to this period (the 15th), we had kept no account of what 

 we dried ; but fis by this time I had agreed to give up Swit- 

 zerland, and go to the Pyrenees, where we intended to keep a 

 catalogue of every plant we collected, we considered it better to 



* Mr Bentham and I afterwards discovered St. micrantha on the Spanish 

 side of the Pyrenees, where it was certainly wild, but exceedingly scarce. 

 That is, as far as I know, the only locality in Europe where it is absque duUo 

 indigenous. As to Psoralea palcestina^ it was not sufficiently advanced when I 

 was at Pont Juvenal for me to judge of it in the live state ; but the dried spe- 

 cimen exhibits not one specific character that I can see between it and Ps. bi- 

 tuminosa, which is exceedingly common in the south of France. Is it to the 

 nose, and not the epe, that we should trust for the distinction ? 



