THE ANNALS 
AND 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
SUPPLEMENT TO VOL. XVII. JUNE 1846. 
LIV.—Botanical Excursion in Lower Styria in 1842. 
By R.C. Arexanper, M.D.* 
In the spring of 1842 I was persuaded by my friend Dr. Maly 
to take a tour through Lower Styria, as a country that had been 
hitherto very little explored by botanists, though from its situa- 
tion seeming to claim their especial notice. Situated in a degree 
of latitude about the same as that of the middle of France, at 
the base of the great central Alpine group of Europe, three 
branches of which terminate in this province; and on the other, 
the eastern side, exposed to the influence of the great plain of 
Hungary, where the winter is as cold as in the steppes of Russia, 
and the summer as hot as in the warmest parts of Italy or Spain, 
it might be expected to evince in its vegetation the effects of a 
climate so modified. Though it was impossible in an excursion 
of eight weeks to obtain anything approaching to a perfect know- 
ledge of its flora, the few plants collected are of interest in 
connexion with the circumstances under which they present 
themselves. 
During the first four months of the year I remained at Gratz. 
The thaw set in on the 2nd of March, but the weather continued 
very cold till the end of April, and the vegetation was unusually 
backward. During this time I collected Daphne Mezereon, which 
was in blossom on the 14th March upon the Schockel, a month 
earlier than in the plain below, Crocus vernus, and its var. albi- 
florus, Helleborus viridis, Carex clandestina, ornithopoda, digitata, 
montana and precox ; Erythronium Dens-canis, which is abun- 
dant in all the woods from Gratz southward, Anemone pratensis, 
Halleri, hepatica, ranunculoides, Hierochloa australis, Sesleria 
cerulea, Petasites albus, Potentilla cinerea and alba, Erica carnea, 
Gagea lutea, Isopyrum thalictroides, Corydalis solida, Cornus 
Inas, Potentilla micrantha, Ram., Primula Auricula, Valeriana 
tripteris, Gentiana acaulis and verna, Viola arenaria, Pulmonaria 
mollis and officinalis, Daphne Cneorum, Mercurialis ovata, and 
Veronica triphylios. 
The Society will find specimens of them with their habitats 
among the plants sent. The Anemone Halleri is the same as the 
Bohemian Hacquetii, and the plant of Piedmont described by 
* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, March 12th, 1846, 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xvii. Suppl. aI 
