The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



berry, the walnut-tree, and the white oak. Box 

 becomes plentiful. We enter upon a monotonous 

 region extending from the end of the cultivated 

 fields to the lower boundary of the beech-woods, 

 where the predominant plant is Satureia montana, 

 the winter savory, known here by its popular name 

 of pebre d'ase, Ass's pepper, because of the acrid 

 flavour of its tiny leaves, impregnated with essen- 

 tial oil. Certain small cheeses forming part of our 

 stores are powdered with this strong spice. Al- 

 ready more than one of us is biting into them in 

 imagination and casting hungry glances at the pro- 

 vision bags carried by the Mule. Our hard morn- 

 ing exercise has brought appetite, and more than 

 appetite, a devouring hunger, what Horace calls 

 latrans stomachus. I teach my colleagues how to 

 stay this rumbling stomach until they reach the 

 next halt; I show them a little sorrel-plant, with 

 arrow-head leaves, the Rumex scutatus, or French 

 sorrel; and, practising what I preach, I pick a 

 mouthful. At first they laugh at my suggestion. 

 I let them laugh and soon see them all occupied, 

 each more eagerly than his fellow, in plucking the 

 precious sorrel. 



While chewing the acid leaves we come to the 

 beeches. These are first big, solitary bushes, trail- 

 ing on the ground ; soon after, dwarf trees, cluster- 

 ing close together; and, finally, mighty trunks, form- 

 ing a dense and gloomy forest, whose soil is a mass 

 of rough limestone blocks. Bowed down in win- 

 ter by the weight of the snow, battered all the year 

 round by the fierce gusts of the Mistral, many of 



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