THE ANCIENT AXU M013EKX FLOTAS OE MONTPELLIER. 2C3 



lier vegetation before any probable intervention of man, the other in 

 indicating the modifications which the flora has undergone within a 

 determinate historical period. Both of them furnish data of con- 

 siderable interest towards the general history of vegetation, as we 

 shall endeavour to show, taking first into consideration the second 

 memoir relating to the recent historical period. 



The Montpellier district has some peculiar advantages for 

 researches into this branch of its history during the last three centu- 

 ries — a minute portion of time it is true when compared with that 

 which it must have taken to establisb its present flora, but yet 

 sufficient to test the value of several of the opposing theories recently 

 propounded on the introduction, dispersion, and extinction of 

 species. Its rich and varied vegetation has been carefully observed 

 and repeatedly described by eminent botanists from the eighteenth 

 century to the present day, during which period also various eftorts 

 to introduce new plants have been recorded, accidental importations 

 have been observed, and the real or supposed disappearance of others 

 more than once commented on. 



Eondelet, professor at the University of Montpellier towards the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, was the first great promoter of 

 botanical studies in that country. He did not himself publish any- 

 thing on its Flora, but the works of the period describe him as 

 exploring the region at the head of his numerous pupils and directing 

 them into the true scientific paths for the study of its vegetable 

 treasures. Amongst these pupils are reckoned Eabelais, Dalechamp, 

 Clusius, Jean Bauhin, Pena, and Lobel, and many of these, espe- 

 cially Lobel and Pena have, in their various works, left numerous 

 indications of the precise localities of plants in the neighbourhood of 

 Montpellier. In 1596 Bicher de Belleval founded the celebrated 

 Jardin des Plantes in the suburbs of the town, which has ever 

 since been kept up as a great centre of botanical research. He also 

 drew up some " Herborisations autour de Montpellier," which, how- 

 ever, were never published. In the latter half of the seventeenth 

 century Magnol published his " Botanicon Monspeliense," of wdiich 

 Dr. Planchon says : " under its modest exterior, this little book of 

 Magnol's, the first catalogue of our species, is an important work, 

 revealing the qualities of a conscientious observer and a really scien- 

 tific mind. It is yet in the present day the best local Flora we 

 possess, it is deserving of full confidence, and would perhaps be the 

 guide the most consulted by explorers, had it not been that its now 

 antiquated nomenclature renders its practical use very difficult" — an 



p 2 



