. 862 



occurs, but less abundantly than in the station before noticed : Me- 

 dicago orbicularis also occurs in the same place. Fedia coronata is 

 most abundant on a sandy point overhanging the rail-road : Oxalis 

 stricta occurs in the lower grounds ; Coronilla minima and Micropus 

 erectus are common in this direction. 



On the 29th I left Etampes and returned to Paris ; and on the 2nd 

 of July accompanied M. de Jussieu and his friends and pupils in a 

 herborization in the forest of Montmorency. 



The neighbourhood of Paris affords a number of stations for plea- 

 sant and profitable botanical excursions, in the radius of a few miles. 

 The forests of Marly, St. Germain, Montmorency, Bondy and Senart, 

 the woods of Meudon and Versailles, and still nearer, those of Bou- 

 logne and Vincennes, afford ample scope for botanical investigations. 

 Sometimes a larger range is taken, and M. de Jussieu leads a party, 

 once in the season, to Fontainebleau or Rambouillet. In the weekly 

 excursions, the mass of pupils know little about Botany, but even in 

 these parties there are generally some sensible men and good bota- 

 nists, besides M. de Jussieu himself, and M. Decaisne. M, de Jus- 

 sieu's method with his pupils is admirable. They bring him plants 

 to name, and he adds to the name some little note about their cha- 

 racters, or the natural class to which they belong, or calls their atten- 

 tion to particular points of construction which may tend to elucidate 

 these points. 



We took the road by the Fontaine, and thus entered the forest, 

 keeping afterwards rather to the left. There is a good deal of springy 

 ground, which does not perhaps yield much water even in the spring, 

 but which is sufficient to maintain a number of plants which delight 

 in moisture, and Osmunda regalis and a variety of Carices are pretty 

 widely diffused. We got Carex Mairii growing plentifully, mixed 

 with C. flava; Poly gala depressa seems also to like wet places. On 

 emerging from this part of the forest we passed the village of Andilly, 

 from a point above which we had a noble view over the valley of the 

 Seine and the surrounding hills. On the top of this bluff the stones 

 abound in the fossil seeds of Chara medicaginula. On ascending this 

 point we turn to the left, between a corn-field and a branch of the 

 forest : the former contains Arenaria segetalis. Beyond this we again 

 find a considerable extent of wet gi'ound, from which we descended 

 to a dried-up pool, at the foot of which is the habitat of Stachys al- 

 pina. In this pool, or in one in the same neighbourhood, I recollect 

 on a former occasion to have found Teucrium Scorodonia. We then 

 turned up the little valley which forms a station for Asperula odo- 



