860 



with villages and cultivation. This hollow of Boissy aux Cailles 

 forms the head of a separate valley, watered lower down by the little 

 river I'Ecolle, which falls into the Seine at Ponthievy. The eye fol- 

 lows it as far as Milly, where some pretty high hills, probably calca- 

 reous, rise above the sandy banks. To judge from this view, and 

 fi'om the figure it makes on the map, there is no situation about Paris 

 which promises a better harvest than Milly, and as we find no habi- 

 tats assigned, I conclude that none has been so little visited. 



Whatever we may think of the Botany of Malesherbes, the tendency 

 it exhibits to admit a foreign vegetation is very curious. Of the va- 

 rious plants which have been sown in different places in our country, 

 for amusement, for experiment, or with the fallacious and foolish view 

 of swelling out the numbers of a local Flora, we know that very few 

 have succeeded ; but here everything seems to take root. 



On the 26th of June I found a voiture at Malesherbes, which took 

 me to Lardi, whence I went by the rail-road to Etampes. Our road 

 followed the valley of the Essonne (after the first three or four miles) 

 as far as Ferte I'Aleps, and the whole is very tempting ; but on anor 

 ther occasion (July) I visited Pithiviers, which perhaps is more different 

 in its character from Malesherbes than Maisse, la Ferte, or any place 

 in the lower valley of the Essonne. The grit and sand here disappear, 

 and we have only a few calcareous rocks and slopes of trifling eleva- 

 vation arising from the valley. Pithiviers would afford two long 

 walks, one up and one down the valley, in each case going on one 

 side and returning on the other. Many of the rarities of Malesherbes 

 are here plentiful ; as Linum montanum, the erect variety, Teucrium 

 montanum. Ononis Columnse, Micropus erectus and Althaea hirsuta. 

 Prunus Mahaleb is extremely common, as w^ell as several of the other 

 shrubs of doubtful spontaneity already mentioned. In the park, a 

 vast enclosure of fields, gardens, meadows and marshes, M. Cosson 

 and myself gathered Lathyrus palustris. This park is open on the 

 side towards Pithiviers, but has no exit at the further end, and its 

 long wall forces one to a disagreeable detour on that side of the town. 

 Below the park is a considerable marsh, somewhat peaty in places, 

 and here also is found Lathyrus palustris, but not so plentifully as in 

 the park. In another direction L. tuberosus grows among the com. 

 Towards Bonderoy, Medicago orbicularis is plentiful, and we observ- 

 ed Tordylium maximum and Veronica prsecox. 



From Etampes the walk I should most recommend is to go to the 

 extremity of the Fauxbourg St. Pierre, and turning on the left from 

 the road to Pithiviers, ascend a sandy slope by the side of a sand-pit. 



