PREFACE. 



f MHESE Natural History Notes were written at 

 different times and in different moods during 

 a long residence on the Riviera. My first 

 stay in the South was before the annexation of Nice 

 to France, when railways were as yet unknown in 

 this part of the world. Having spent as many as 

 twelve summers in the mountain and subalpine 

 villages of the Maritime Alps, these higher regions 

 are as familiar to me as the narrow strip of land 

 along the coast where strangers congregate. 



Some fifty of the chapters were written without 

 any thought of publication, and with no other aim 

 than to occupy the scanty leisure of a hard-worked 

 schoolmaster. The few remaining articles were added 

 in order to make the series more complete. 



As the book is intended for those to whom 

 Natural History is a recreation, I have not thought it 

 necessary to affect the sober style of a scientific 

 treatise. Nor have I confined myself to remarks 

 about the structure and affinities of the different 

 species. For many of the plants which surround us 

 here have an interest other than botanical. They 

 are connected with history, with mythology, and with 



