360 BOTANY OP SPAIN. [December, 



yellow Narcissus, N.juncifolius, formerly confounded with N. Jon- 

 quilla, grew copiously in the same region ; and near the summit 

 of the mountain (on the grassy ledge on which are the ruins of the 

 highest hermitage, that named after St. Jerome), N. biflorus, more 

 beautiful than even N. poeticus, filled the air with rich fragrance. 



But the plant most associated with Monserrat is Ramondia 

 pyrenaica, known to those who have botanized at Gavarnie, Es- 

 quierry, and other places in the Higher Pyrenees, as one of the 

 most exquisite vegetable productions of that mountain chain. 

 This plant, the only European representative of the Order Ci/r- 

 tandracecB, was earliest known and described (under the name 

 Verbascum Myconi) as a Monserrat plant ; these excepted, it has, 

 I believe, no other known habitat. I was fortunate enough to 

 find in a rock, a plant or two already in flower ; not on the higher 

 part of the mountain, but on its lower slope, very near the car- 

 riage-road. Though I possessed far more beautiful specimens 

 collected on the rocky side of the torrent at Gavarnie, it gave me 

 great pleasure to find it in what, if not its first abode, is at least 

 the first place in which it Avas scientifically recognized. 



The remaining plants which I observed on Monserrat I shall 

 enumerate in the usual order. They are doubtless but a small 

 part of the botanical riches of the mountain, so many plants 

 being, at this early time of the year (the second week of May, 

 in a very backward season), not only not in flower, but not yet 

 recognizable. Of Banuncidacea, there were Clematis Vilalba 

 and two Thalictra ; one of these had not even begun to flower ; 

 another, in the lower region of the mountain, and in very small 

 quantity, had barely begun, and I could not with certainty deter- 

 mine it.. Its appearance is not the usual one of a Thalictrum, 

 and if a French species, it must be T. tuberosum. Ranunculus 

 gramineus I have mentioned, to which add R. bulbosus and 

 Helleborus fmtidus. Of Crucifers, I saw Arabis sagittata, Ge- 

 rardi, and Turrita ; Cardamine hirsuta ; Biscutella Icevigata 

 abundantly, the smooth, though hard form, which justifies the 

 name (not B. ambigua, the common one of the South, now 

 generally accounted a variety of the former) ; an Erysimum ; 

 Sisymbrium h'io, Columnce, and obtusangulum ; Dijjlotaa^is eru- 

 coides ; and, of course, Alyssum calycinum, and Lepidium Draba. 

 The Reseda were represented by R. Phyteuma and R. fruticulosa. 

 The CaryopJiyllea, by Silene italica, with other large and small 



