511 



My first walk was above the town, after an unsuccessful call on M. 

 Darracq, who at first was at Biarritz, and afterwards on a botanical 

 excursion towards the Spanish frontier. The first plant which excited 

 my attention was the Daiicus Carota, a variety with red flowers, and 

 the umbel less radiate than usual; and what I believe to be a monstro- 

 sity of the same, viith a smooth germen, and so much elongated that 

 I imagined myself to have found a new Chaerophyllum ; but the seeds 

 were not far enough advanced to aflbrd satisfactory specimens. Some 

 of the ditches in this direction are full of Leersia oryzoides, with a 

 large, entirely exsert, and well-developed panicle. On the hills was 

 Ulex Gallii ; and I found this afterwards very abundantly at Biarritz. 

 On the road-side between Bayonne and Bordeaux this gives way to 

 the typical form of U. nanus ; but on returning, at La Teste, to the 

 shores of the ocean, I again found exclusively U. Gallii, of the largest 

 size, and more nearly approaching to U. europaeus than I had ever 

 before seen it. I also gathered what I believe is a Laserpitium, but 

 in so young a state that I cannot be confident of its genus. The best 

 plants at Biarritz at this time of year are probably Linaria graeca and 

 L. Prestrandreae. I do not, however, perceive much difference between 

 the seeds of the latter and those of L. spuria. Linaria thymifolia is a 

 common plant of the coast ; and Dianthus gallicus is a plentiful and 

 beautiful ornament to the sand-hills. This is the D. arenarius of the 

 * Flore Fran9aise ;' but Koch will not allow it to be the plant of the 

 shores of the Baltic, which is that of Linnaeus. The chief difference 

 seems to lie in the obovate inline of the beardless petals, which in D. 

 arenarius is oblong. Artemisia crithmifolia is abundant on the sand- 

 hills, both at Biarritz and at Bayonne ; and I gathered also Galium 

 arenarium and Diotis candidissima. Stalice occidentalis was the 

 only Statice I saw there. The country about Biarritz corresponds 

 with our greensand ; and the very intricate and broken rocky coast 

 near the place promised a better botanical harvest than was realized. 

 There are many little valleys, each with a little stream at the bottom, 

 and a good deal of boggy ground, affording Ly thrum Graefferi and 

 Scirpus liltoralis and S. Savii. Lobelia urens is common ; and in 

 drier parts Lithospermum purpureo-caeruleum, Erica vagans, E. cine- 

 rea, and E. ciliaris are frequent ; but I did not see E. Tetralix. 



On the 11th I returned to Bayonne, and, finding no probabihty of 

 obtaining a place in the great diligence, engaged a place in the con- 

 currence. In general these partial, rival diligences are not so conve- 

 nient, nor so well mounted, as those of the great establishments ; 

 but in this case I had no reason to complain, for we reached Mont de 



