302 BOTANY OF SPAIN. [October, 



it, which has only of late become known in France itself, for it 

 is not mentioned by De Candolle. It was seen by the present 

 writer in its native place before the publication of the third 

 volume of Grenier and Godron, in which it is for the first time 

 distinguished and described. It has been named by them A. 

 sphcerocarpus, and I will venture to make it the subject of a 

 short digression. 



Perhaps English botanists may some day turn their steps to- 

 wards a region not yet much frequented by them, but which has 

 many claims to their notice, — the peninsula of Brittany. The 

 tour of this province is one of the most attractive short Con- 

 tinental excursions which an Englishman can make. In the 

 first place, it is about the cheapest ; a consideration no less im- 

 portant to botanists than to others, their pursuit not being one 

 of those which bring in a golden harvest. The inn charges, 

 when once fairly within the peninsula, are (or were half-a-dozen 

 years ago) less than two-thirds of the ordinary scale of travel- 

 ling in France. Besides being the cheapest, this excursion is 

 one of the most beautiful of those which are easily and quickly 

 accessible, and its style of beauty is that which English people 

 usually prefer. The interior resembles, more nearly than any- 

 thing else on the Continent, the wilder and rockier parts of 

 England, while the coast scenery rivals that of Cornwall. The 

 journey also naturally combines with a visit to that corner of 

 the British dominions so interesting to an English botanist and 

 to a political economist, the Channel Islands. The north coast 

 of Brittany has not, as far as I could observe, much of botanical 

 attraction, if we except the neighbourhood of Dinan, which 

 produces Galeopsis villosa, Gratiola officinalis, Sinapis Cheiran- 

 thus, Sedum album, reflexum, and riibens, Tragopogon porrifolius, 

 and others. But the southern coast, from the peninsula of Pen- 

 march to the Loire, unites the attraction of rare plants with 

 that of its unrivalled Druidical remains. Among these last, the 

 traveller will scarcely fail to visit those of the peninsula of Loc- 

 mariaker; and if he does so, it should not be from Auray, but 

 from Vannes, in a boat down the river, and across the gulf or 

 inland sea known as the Mer de Morbihan. Among the nume- 

 rous islands (the popular imagination reckons three hundred and 

 sixty-five) with which the sea is studded^ he Avill doubtless land 

 on a small one bearing the name of Gavr Innis, and containing 



