A MIDWINTER MONTH BY THE MEDITERRANEAN. 45 



to have picked a quarrel over its discovery, which ended in a 

 scramble and general plunder, every man laying hands on what 

 he could of the remains ; thus the whole of this valuable treasure 

 has been lost except the skull. Even this would not have fallen 

 to the share of M. Bonfils had it not been by a fortunate accident 

 shattered into fragments by a pick-axe before it was actually 

 unearthed. The fragments have now however been put together 

 again, and all that now remains of the " new man " is in the 

 museum of Mentone.* 



On the top of the ridge separating the Carei and Cabrolles 

 valleys, is the monastery of the Anunziata, to which a good path 

 rises rapidly from the town below. Close to the beginning of the 

 path I found Jersey ferns {Grauunitis leptophylld) growing in a 

 bank, and near here several trap-door spiders had built their nests. 

 On the sandstone slopes grow rosemary, Cistus salviiBfolius, Dian- 

 thus saxifragus, and such plants. Just above the monastery the 

 path winds through a plantation of pines and small shrubs, an 

 excellent hunting-ground for insects at the right season. A little 

 heather ( Calhma vulgaris) was still in flower, but the white " Med- 

 iterranean " heath {Erica arborea) bore no blossom as yet. 

 The roots of the latter shrub are much used for making the 

 tobacco pipes known as " briar root," " briar " being a corruption 

 of the French 5r7iyere, or heath. About here I recognised plants 

 of Coris monspelieiisis, and Lavandula stoechas, not in flower, how- 

 ever; and a neighbouring olive plantation was carpeted with 

 leaves of Anemone coronaria. The ground was wet and slippery 

 with the recent rains. Instead of turning down into the Turin, or 

 Carei Valley by the paths, I determined to strike for the Cabrolles 

 Valley, and soon got to a steep slope of soft grey gault, of which 

 there is much about Mentone. I made one or two attempts to 

 clamber down the slippery hillside to the torrent bed, and was 

 rewarded by finding plants of Globidaria vulgaris (one of which I 

 brought home, and it is still flourishing), and the leaves of 



* For a fuller account see the Report of the Aberdeen Meeting of the 

 British Association in 1885. Since the above was written, three more skele- 

 tons have been unearthed in the caves, together with a lot of ornaments, flint 

 implements, etc. These are described in the Mediterranean Naticralist for 

 July and in Natural Science for June, 1892. 



