Excursion in Lower Styria. 463 



Carniolans, Lower Styrians, Dalmatians or Slovacks. ' Sauvolk,' 

 '.mistrauisch/ ' Spitzbuben/ are the terms commonly applied to 

 them. They are charged with every kind of sensuality. The 

 country gentlemen and the clergy speak better of them than 

 those of Upper Styria do of their neighbours, and I recommend 

 any of the Society who take a botanical trip into the Austrian 

 dominions to visit one of these long-neglected provinces. Car- 

 niola would perhaps be the most interesting. 



To resume the journey — I went next to Rann, which, like 

 Pettau and Gratz, lies on a flat tract of alluvial land. This plain 

 being just at the mouth of the gorge through which the Save dis- 

 charges itself, is subject to dreadful devastations by floods, and 

 a great part lies uncultivated, being too insecure. Here I found 

 Scrophularia canina, Ajuga ChamcepitySf and Leucojum cestivum, 

 and upon the neighbouring hills Epimedium alpinum, Hesperis 

 matronalis, Orobus niger and Medicago carstiensis. 



From Rann I made a short trip to Agram, and found on the 

 road Adonis cestivalis, and on rubbish-heaps in the town Pyre^ 

 thrum macrophyllum. The unceasing rain, alternating with in- 

 tolerable heat, rendered all attempts at botanizing futile, and I 

 returned to Rann, where M. Josepatz, a very zealous young bo- 

 tanist, had meanwhile dried my Wisell plants for me. Taking 

 Reichenburg in my way to Lichtenwald, I found Potentilla in- 

 clinata, Vill., and Orchis hircina, with other plants seen at Wisell. 



From Lichtenwald I ascended the Laisberg and found the 

 long-lost Ranunculus Thora, L. {scutatuSy W. K.), which, though 

 abundant enough in Italian Tyrol, occurs nowhere else in the 

 German provinces of Austria. Another hill near Cilli is called 

 Leisberg : this one, on which the R. Thora grows, is printed Lisza 

 on all the maps, though it really is pronounced and usually written 

 Leis. There was a tradition that the plant grew on the Leisberg, 

 and the Prefect Dorfman in Cilli had been tormented by all his 

 friends to get them specimens, and had this year hunted for it 

 high and low on the Leis. I brought down only ten specimens, 

 not knowing that it was so prized. Other plants found were 

 Orobus luteuSj Laserpitium Siler, Ophrys myodes, Orchis mascula 

 (on the 6th of June), Cytisus purpureus, and Linum viscosum and 

 Jtavum. The outward habit of the O. mascula is very different, 

 and so is the time of flowering, from that of the British plant, 

 but it certainly agrees with Lindley's description of O. mascula. 

 Gymnadenia conopsea and Platanthera bifolia usually accompany 

 it on mountain meadows ; and these too have a slenderer and 

 more delicate form. Habenaria viridis grows in meadows as 

 large and coarse as Orchis latifolia. Nearer the castle I found 

 Ophrys arachnites and a very hirsute variety of Triticum (Brachy- 

 podium, Beau.) pinnatutn. In the meadows, Gentiana utriculosa, 



