DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVELLING. 43 



has a special talent for arranging the hay, &c., and, weak as 

 I was, I passed comfortably through the night, and even 

 bathed in a river the next morning. Then came five or 

 six hours of a dreadful journey tropical sun, bad horses, 

 rough road so that I reached my destination almost 

 fainting, and needing to be physicked and nursed. 



' How I have missed a better knowledge of botany and 

 geology during this trip ! and regretted having no books 

 of reference with me, or knowing how to preserve plants ! 

 Several plants took my attention as not seen by me before. 

 The first I plucked in Kazan, but subsequently found 

 abounding everywhere in the Ufa and Orenburg Govern- 

 ments, was a blue flower. A stiff stalk, about a foot in 

 height, with a series of buds arranged spirally, I think, 

 from root to top. One bud, rarely two, opened into a 

 simple flower, about an inch in diameter, composed of a 

 single row of petals. In some cases the opened flower 

 was near the ground, but mostly half-way up the stem 

 or near its top. 



' Another plant was a small spear thistle, the head some- 

 times, but more frequently the whole plant, of a bright 

 pale blue colour. This I found often, generally on hill 

 sides, and it had a most peculiar appearance, accustomed 

 as we are to see colours, beside green, limited to the 

 petals. 



' Of another plant I plucked one specimen some distance 

 up a hill-side, but I saw more afterwards when driving 

 through a wood. I think you would class it among reeds 

 or rushes a circular stem full of sap leaves, I forget, 

 but think, rather long, the stem ending in a head of bloom, 

 blood red, almost circular, composed of many separate 

 flowers, arranged much like the thistle-down, but having 

 no affinity to it. 



' In driving through one of the woods I saw a plant 

 very much resembling the garden phlox, but could not get 

 out to examine it more closely, The report of bears being 

 in the vicinity, and the fear of snakes in the long grass, 

 made me too cowardly. 



