250 Mr Arnott's Tour to the South ^France 



about twenty-five years before that of Paris. Belleval was 

 the first Professor of Botany; and, since his time, this esta- 

 blishment may boast of many other distinguished men who 

 have taught there. Gouan, Broussonet, and De CandoUe, 

 are names not to be shghtingly passed over. Perhaps the pre- 

 sent Professor M. Dehle has done more than any of his prede- 

 cessors towards the advancement of the garden. M. Delile also 

 does much towards forming an herbarium, which it were desir- 

 able should remain at Montpellier, as. the private herbaria of 

 Gouan and De CandoUe are now, the one in Scotland, the other 

 at Geneva. 



Upon the whole, the state of botany in the south of France 

 is very much advanced, and many botanists of note have stu- 

 died here. As a proof of their labours, one has only to turn up 

 a botanical work, to see that many plants have got the specific 

 name of monspeliacus^ from having been at first distinguished at 

 Montpellier alone; and we believe that there is much yet to be 

 done. At first, it is sufficient to give that name which we find 

 in a Species Plantarum, to have a description that answers to the 

 plant we are investigating : as, however, our herbaria enlarge, 

 and our communications with naturalists at a distance increase, 

 it may be supposed that we shall find that we have made many . 

 errors. Thus, we see, that, in the present day, not a few species 

 in the south of France have been confounded with similar ones 

 in the north of Europe. The Peplis portula of Montpellier is 

 different from that of Britain *. The Isoetes laciistris found 

 here, and which I believe Sir James Smith met with, is, if not 

 a distinct species from the British one, a most remarkable va- 

 riety : the leaves are remarkably long and subulate ; tl^e same 

 has been found in the north of Africa ; whilst the true Isoetes 

 lacit^stris, even in the north of Europe, is only found in cold al- 

 pine lakes or beds of rivers. The Montpellier one has been 

 named Isoetes suhulata. In place of the Arum maculatum, we 

 here find the A. italicum, the temperature of whose spadix ex- 



* I have seen it in M. Gay's herbarium unJer the name of Peplis ausfra- 

 lis; and, if I tecoUect well, Salzman has brought it from Tangiers, under 

 the name o( P, bijlora : this last is perhaps, however, a third species; but I 

 have not my specimens at hand. 



