793 



The next day we had a ramble in the forest of Orleans, but besides 

 that we had anticipated many of the plants, the ground in this direc- 

 tion is not so favourable for Botany. We examined a large shallow 

 pond, where the gardener Aubin thought he had found Carex hordei- 

 stichos, the year before but we sought for it in vain. A curious variety 

 of Cirsium anglicum, if it be not rather a species, grows here, the stem 

 being much more leafy than in the usual state of the plant. 



Cirsium anglicum is the Cnicus pratensis of our British botanists, 

 the latter generic name having been taken from Linnaeus, the for- 

 mer from Tournefort; and the name Cnicus being thus at liberty, De 

 Candolle has appropriated it to the Centaurea benedicta, which was 

 called Cnicus by Vaillant, and by Linnaeus in the first edition of the 

 * Species Plantarum.' With regard to the trivial name the matter is 

 more intricate. Linnteus has a Carduus dissectus growing in France 

 and England, which is lost if it be not this, plant. Hudson conse- 

 quently called it at first C. dissectus, but afterwards adopted the name 

 of C. pratensis. Cirsium anglicum is a name of Ray, adopted by La- 

 marck. 1 will not here attempt to trace the limits or the synonymy 

 of this species, tuberosum, bulbosum and pratcnse of DeCandoUe, ob- 

 serving, however, that if tuberosum and bulbosum be the same plant, 

 the former name is to be preferred, as the root is strictly tuberous, 

 and not bulbous. Smith says that the root is creeping in C. tubero- 

 sus, and not in pratensis. It is certainly creeping in the plant before 

 us, but I suspect that it is so, more or less, in his C. pratensis. We 

 noticed Euphorbia dulcis, which I had not seen since I left Rouen, 

 and one or two specimens of E. Lathyris ; also Erica scoparia, Me- 

 lampyrum cristatum. Arnica montana. Inula salicina and Festuca 

 heterophylla : I have not made up my mind as to whether this F. he- 

 terophylla be the same as our F. duriuscula. I have never seen it 

 except in woods, and the slender culms, and numerous, very long, ca- 

 pillary root-leaves give it a very different appearance. F. duriuscula 

 of the French botanists is a variety of F. ovina. 



From Orleans I proceeded in a steam-boat down the Loire to Blois, 

 and on Friday morning, in company with one of my companions in the 

 packet, visited the Chateau de Charabord, a magnificent and very cu- 

 rious palace of Francis I. There are four large round towers at the 

 angles of the principal building, which rather promise some fine apart- 

 ments within, but they are cut up into little rooms. Heavy rains af- 

 terwards prevented all but a short walk to a place on the south side 

 of the Loire, which sometimes receives its overfiowings. Glaucium 

 luteum has here established itself; aiul 1 noticed Mcdicago nnnima, 



