509 



iiean, and separates it, as I have already said, from a series of brackisli 

 lakes, called Clangs. A broad canal unites the lake with the port ; 

 and the water in this canal does not always run the same way. 



I have already anticipated some plants on the borders of the pool ; 

 others interesting to a northern botanist are Suseda hirsuta and S. 

 setigera. In drier places we find Xanthiura Struraarium and X. spi- 

 nosum in great abundance, as also MomordicaElaterium. On the hill 

 Mercurialis toraentosa deserves our attention, and still more Lactuca 

 tenerriraa, two plants of very limited geographical position. We find 

 Evax pygmsea, Carlina corymbosa, Plantago Lagopus, and several 

 other plants more common in Italy, and, in some hedges dividing the 

 little pieces of land which have been redeemed from the sand-hills, 

 Cynanchum acutum. Crucianella raaritima is abundant on the sands ; 

 and here also grows Ephedra distachya, a plant I had before met with 

 at Port Louis, on the shores of the Atlantic, but which I did not meet 

 with at Bayonue or Biairritz, and which does not occur in the ' Flore 

 Bordelaise' of Laterrade. According to Duby it is found on the 

 shores of France from Nice to Nantes ; but I apprehend this is only 

 at very wide intervals. It has no place in the Roman flora, but we 

 meet with it again in the Neapolitan. It does not reach, apparently, 

 the shores of the Adriatic ; but Koch mentions it in the Vallais and 

 the Southern Tyrol. Phlomis Herba-venti occurs both here and at 

 Nismes ; by no means a common plant of the South. P. Lychnitis 

 and Sideritis romana are more common. Erythrsea spicata occurs 

 on the sands. The Salicornias at Cette are like those near Agde. 

 The Statices also are nearly alike in both places. We find at Agde 

 a variety of S. Limonium in which the lower secondary branches are 

 uniformly barren. At Bayonne, as with us, there are hardly any bar- 

 ren branches. The Statices at Cette are chiefly on the limestone 

 rock ; at Agde, on the sand. S. oleifolia and S. psiloclada are abun- 

 dant in both places. S. echioides is scattered here and there about 

 Cette. S. auriculifolia and S. caspia are more abundant about the 

 mouth of the Herault. A new Statice is said to have been discovered 

 on the Place d'Agde ; and, imagining it to be some square half sur- 

 rounded by houses, I supposed that I should soon be there, and that 

 I should have but a small space to examine. The answer to my 

 inquiries from those who knew anything about it, was always that I 

 must go further ; and at last, having left not only the town, but the 

 hill on which it is placed, I found that the Place d'Agde was the strip 

 of sand, about ten miles long, extending to the neighbourhood of 

 Agde. It probably should be Plage d'Agde. At the mouth of the 



