The Professor: Ajaccio 



ishments; and there we were for a fortnight, chat- 

 ting at table de omni re scibili, after the botanical 

 excursion was over. 



With Moquin-Tandon new vistas opened before 

 me. Here it was no longer the case of a nomen- 

 clator with an infallible memory; he was a natu- 

 ralist with far-reaching ideas, a philosopher who 

 soared above petty details to comprehensive views 

 of life, a writer, a poet who knew how to clothe 

 the naked truth in the magic mantle of the glow- 

 ing word. Never again shall I sit at an intellectual 

 feast like that: 



" Leave your mathematics," he said. " No one 

 will take the least interest in your formulae. Get 

 to the beast, the plant; and, if, as I believe, the 

 fever burns in your veins, you will find men to 

 listen to you." 



We made an expedition to the centre of the 

 island, to Monte Renoso, 1 with which I was ex- 

 tremely familiar. I made the scientist pick the 

 hoary everlasting (Helichrysum frigidum), which 

 makes a wonderful patch of silver; the many- 

 headed thrift, or mouflon-grass {Armeria multiceps) , 

 which the Corsicans call erba muorone; the downy 

 marguerite (Leucanthemum tomosum) , which, clad 

 in wadding, shivers amid the snows; and many 

 other rarities dear to the botanist. Moquin-Tan- 

 don was jubilant. I, on my side, was much more 

 attracted and overcome by his words and his enthu- 



1 A mountain 7730 feet high, about twenty-five miles 

 from Ajaccio, — A. T. de M. 



121 



