508 



the plant of DeCandolle), Echinophora spinosa, and Rumex tingita- 

 nus. In the wetter parts were Linum maritimiim, Sonchus raaritimus, 

 and Plantago Cornuti, Sahcornia frulicosa in flower, another (Arthro- 

 cnemum of Moquin) in fruit, another Salicornia only just in flower, 

 which is perhaps radicans, and a form of herbacea hardly yet in 

 flower. What I here suppose to be S. radicans differs from ours in 

 the greater permanence of its creeping rhizoma, and it is less 

 branched ; but it was not far enough advanced to enable me to under- 

 stand the structure of its seed. The S. herbacea is in the form which 

 it exclusively assumes in the South of France, both on the Mediter- 

 ranean and Atlantic. It differs from ours in the more taper spikes, 

 and the length and abundant ramification of its lower branches. I 

 should say it was between the form which I have on a former occa- 

 sion called S. ramosissima and S. procurabens. It is not confined to 

 the south, for I have a specimen from the banks of the Scheldt, which 

 evidently belongs to the same variety. Salicornia fruticosa I could 

 not find on the Bay of Biscay ; but here and at Cette what 1 imagine 

 to be the true plant was only just coming into flower. One of the 

 remarkable plants here is a Spartina discovered by M. Fabre, who 

 M'as puzzled by it for some years, as he did not visit the place in De- 

 cember, which is the period of its flowering. Mons. Dunal has de- 

 scribed it under the name of Spartina versicolor ; but I am assured 

 by M. Gay that it is the Spartina juncea of Willdenow, a plant of the 

 southern parts of North America. He assures me also that it has 

 been found in one or two other places on the shores of the Mediterra- 

 nean. Its position here has no appearance of a foreign origin, for it 

 is not near the navigable entrance of the river, but on the inner, de- 

 pressed part of an extensive range of sand-hills, and on the margin of 

 a piece of water which seems to have no permanent connexion with 

 the sea. Mons. Fabre's attention to it originated in the occupation 

 of a piece of land in the neighbourhood, which he now cultivates with 

 madder, a very profitable crop in the South of France. Mons. Fabre 

 has been carefully cultivating for some years the species of ^Egilops, 

 and thinks he has proved that JEi. ovata and M. triuncialis may both 

 become M. triaristata. He even goes further, and contends that all 

 three may be converted into Triticum sativum. 



I walked back to Agde, and the next day returned to Cette, where 

 the inn was not so full as it had been ; and I got an excellent room, 

 paying for my whole expenses five francs a day. Cette is seated on the 

 eastern base of a rocky limestone hill, which is entirely insulated, ex- 

 cept by the long, low, sandy tract which here borders the Mediterra- 



