MT. 58.] TO JOHN TORREY. 569 



of mediaeval things ; then at Nimes I introduced her 

 to the old Roman world in the well-preserved amphi- 

 theatre and the beautiful temple called Maison Carree, 

 ruins of temples, baths, pavements, and all that, a 

 charming place, of which I had very pleasant memo- 

 ries almost thirty years old. Then, to revive old 

 memories, we went on to Montpellier ; had a nice day 

 with Martins 1 and Planchon 2 (whose photographs, 

 as well as Brongniart's, I have for you) ; then we came 

 on via Aries to Marseilles, within an hour of the rest of 

 the party coming direct from Paris. They all sailed 

 next day ; we waited a week, so as to get a view of this 

 interesting shore, which we should not be likely ever to 

 visit again. So we went first to Hyeres, where we first 

 saw orange groves laden with fruit and tall date-palms, 

 and eucalyptus-trees forty feet high, and all such nice 

 things ; roses by the ten thousand in hedges. . . . 

 Toward evening on the third day, we took a carriage, 

 drove through Mentone along the coast road to Mo- 

 naco ; passing by the modern and gaming district, we 

 went into the old fortified town to lodge ; went round 

 the ramparts in the morning, saw more agaves than 

 ever before, and the steep rock 300 feet high covered 

 with opuntias, having stems as thick as my leg, not to 

 say my body. Next morning took railroad through 

 Nice to Antibes ; visited M. Thuret, 3 the botanist, by 

 appointment ; a most charming man, a French Protest- 



1 Charles Frederic Martins, M. D., 1806-1889 ; professor of botany 

 and director of the Botanic Garden at Montpellier. 



2 Jules Emile Planchon, 1823-1888; professor at Montpellier; 

 author of important works on Systematic Botany and Morphology. 

 Studied Phylloxera. 



3 Gustave Thuret, 1810-1875. " One of the best investigators of 

 Algae ; established a remarkable botanical garden at Antibes " 

 [A. G.]. 



