506 



rupestris, Seclum maximum, S. altissimum, S. dasypliyllum, and S. 

 amplexicaule, Bupleurum junceum, Crucianella angustifolia, Senecio 

 arteraisiifolia, Antirrhinum Asarina, Anarrhinum bellidifolium, Erinus 

 alpiuus, Plantago Cynops, P. alpina, and P. serpentina, Rumex scu- 

 tatus, Andropogon Ischaemum, Psilurus aristatus, and Triticum Poa. 

 In other parts of my walk I observed Lathyrus latifolius, Lavandula 

 vera, Salvia Sclarea, Teucrium Polium, and Salix incana. The lower 

 hills are a good deal covered with chestnut-trees ; and the ground 

 among them is very dry and barren. Above these is often a tract not 

 without moisture, and cultivated. Again higher up we find limestone, 

 with scrubby beeches and an undergrowth of box. 



About ten o'clock at night the diligence again took me up ; and the 

 moonlight enabled me to see that we ascended among groves of chest- 

 nuts to the plateau, dipping occasionally into deep, narrow valleys, 

 till, in the deepest of them, we reached St. Jean du Gard. The de- 

 scent is on schistose rocks; at the bottom we meet with granite; then 

 limestone occurs in the valley ; and we here leave the elevated pla- 

 teau. A decomposing granite next appears, and afterwards, at An- 

 duze, lofty limestone rocks, with the strata very much contorted. All 

 this variety promises well for botany ; but after my night's journey I 

 was too sleepy to be very observant from the windows of the diligence. 

 At Anduze we leave the hills and the more solid rock ; but the country 

 from thence to Nismes is composed of beds of limestone alternating 

 with clay, apparently very barren, but rich in the botany of the South. 

 At this time of year the prickly plants were very abundant — Scoly- 

 mus hispanicus, Cirsium ferox, Picnomon Acarna, Echinops Ritro, 

 Onopordon illyricum, Carlina corymbosa, &c.; but we have also Cle- 

 matis Flammula, Paliurus aculeatus, Sedum rupestre, Bupleurum rigi- 

 dura, Scabiosa ambigua, Santolina Chamaecyparissias, Helichrysuui 

 angustifolium, Catananche caerulea, Microlonchus salmanticus, Cen- 

 taurea paniculata, C. collina, C. napifolia, C. pectinata. Inula salicina, 

 Tanacetum annuum, Verbascum sinuatum, Satureja montana, Quer- 

 cus Ilex and coccifera, and Asparagus acutifolius. This exhibition 

 excited so much interest, that I returned afterwards from Montpellier 

 to revisit the place ; but I found that I had miscalculated my dis- 

 tances, and had not allowed myself time to reach the locality where I 

 had chiefly remarked them. 



From Montpellier I went to Cette, by railroad. Cette is at once 

 the seaport and the bathing- place of Montpellier. It stands at the 

 foot of a limestone hill, rising from the long strip of sand-hills which 

 separates a succession of brackish pools (or rtanys, as they gre here 



