1863.] BELGIAN BOTANY. 423 



and to pack np our luggage, on opening our windows we encoun- 

 tered the discouraging sight of a beating rain, which rendered 

 the streets and squares of the town sadly desolate. Every one 

 was asking — Shall we go or not while this weather lasts ? One of 

 our number being bold enough to go down and inspect the sky 

 from the large market-place, came back quite crest-fallen, con- 

 vinced that the weather w as decidedly against us during the rest 

 of the day. However he had met on the road an old jocular 

 fisherman, who assured him tliat when he had emptied his second 

 morning's glass the rain would cease, but he was not going to 

 take his second drop of brandy before ten o'clock ! 



To arouse the sleepers, it had been preconcerted that a mem- 

 ber of the company should procure a postilion's horn, and sound 



the reveille an hour before the departure. Our friend T , 



being somewhat musical, was fortunate enough to discover in the 

 garret of the Hotel du Pelican, an old trumpet, having perhaps 

 already served at the troubled times of the Belgian communes to 

 call the brave burgesses to the ramparts of Nieuport. At six, 

 the trumpet gave out its plaintive sounds, being admirably in 

 harmony with the desolation of the earth and sky. Fortunately 

 Flora, who patronizes her votaries, succeeded in persuading St. 

 Swithin to interrupt his famous forty days' flood, and iEolus, the 

 king of tempests, let loose his myrmidons from the west. 



Notwithstanding wind and tide, we set out at eight o'clock, 

 preceeded by an ass laden with eatables, and confided to the care 

 of old lialthazar. We cast a last and long look at the good little 

 town of Nieuport, which had been so hospitable to us, and shaking 

 hands with our new friends that we were leaving behind, we 

 quickly passed the outskirts of the town. Like vessels knocked 

 about by the wind, we were obliged to take in a reef — in other 

 words to fasten our hats with string or with our handkerchiefs, 

 and button up our coats. The wind was so boisterous that we 

 could scarcely struggle against it and keep on the bank of the 

 channel. On a part of the demolished ramparts, on the western 

 side, we found in abundance magnificent tufts of Atrijjle-v litto- 

 ralis, var. serrata {A. marina, L.), mixed with Blitum ruhrum 

 and Chenopodium murale, Papaver Lecoqii mingled with Popaver 

 dubium, Glyceria distans, Hyoscijamus niger, and numerous 

 splendid tufts of Fumaria densiflora in company with F. media. 



The shallow parts of the channel on the right bank reseml)led 



