Excursion in Lower Styria. 465 



herbarium one looks into. I have two specimens of carniolicum 

 from Noe, named by Reichenbach, as stated on the label ; and I 

 have two others from Freyer, who is publishing the ' Flora Car- 

 niolica/ and ought certainly to know which is his country^s plant ; 

 as forms they are as distinct as possible, Freyer^s plants being 

 the same identical variety as mine from Tiifer in the Sann Thai, 

 and which has been given in Dr. Maly^s ' Flora ' by Mr. Zehentner 

 as strictum. Of all my acquaintance I know no two men on whom 

 I would rely with more confidence than these, Dr. Maly and 

 Zehentner, and yet, as 1 said above, M. Freyer must know his 

 own Carniolan plants. The fact is, that all five are one and the 

 same species. Books are usually written by chamber botanists, 

 who receive only the extreme forms, characteristic specimens, and 

 hence arises this multiplicity of species. 



In the TeufeFs Graben near Cilli I found Daphne Laureola, a 

 very scarce plant in these parts, and Dentaria pinnata in fruit. 

 Ruscus hypoglossum grows there, but is so greedily seized by the 

 peasantry to adorn the images in the churches that the botanist 

 can seldom get a bit. 



From Cilli 1 made an excursion with Prefect Dorfman to 

 Schonstein and up the Eselberg, through the romantic Hudi 

 Lukna, DeviFs Ravine. We found Sedum hispanicum and dasy- 

 phyllum, Saxifraga crustatay Vest., Aizoon, rotundifolittj cuneifolia, 

 Erysimum pallens most deliciously fragrant, Veronica saxatilis, 

 Atragene alpina, Convallaria verticillata, and a new discovery for 

 the flora, Cytisus alpinus. 



I fear it may be out of place to describe how excursions go on 

 in this part of the world when one has a good introduction, but 

 it may induce some member to try a trip in the Windisch pro- 

 vinces of Austria. The Prefect is an elderly clergyman, educated 

 at Admont, and a very well-informed man, — the very opposite of 

 what some people figure to themselves of a Catholic priest from 

 a convent, — liberal in his sentiments, a good Greek scholar and 

 a botanist, one of the most delightful men I have met with. We 

 started one afternoon and drove over to Schonstein castle, saw 

 Stachys alpina and two or three other unimportant plants on the 

 way, and took up our quarters at Mr. M . . . ^s, a very good John- 

 Bull-kind of country gentleman, not a man of science at all. He 

 determined to accompany us next day, and sent to the village 

 surgeon to be ready to go with us, and so we sallied out early in 

 the morning and arrived at a parsonage on the mountain about 

 eleven o^ clock. The good clergyman, though taken by surprise, 

 put a really superb dinner on table with the best of wine. No 

 welcome in an Arabian desert could be more kind and cordial than 

 he gave us. After dinner he accompanied us up to the top of the 

 mountain, gave us a very interesting account of the country, and 



