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NOTES ON THE BOTANY OF NORTHERN rORTUGAL. 



By the Rev, R. P. Murray, M.A., F.L.S. 



On the morning of June 6th, 1887, I arrived at Oporto by sea, 

 meaning to spend five or six weeks in Portugal, and to devote as 

 much of this time as possible to a study of the flora of the country. 

 I hope that a slight sketch of the results may prove interesting to 

 some of the readers of this Journal. 



During the greater part of the time I spent in Portugal I was 

 the guest of my friend Mr. A. W. Tait, partly at Oporto and partly 

 at his bungalow in the Gerez ; and I owe not only the pleasure, 

 but to a very large extent the botanical success of my trip to his 

 kindness and knowledge of the country. Certainly, but for his 

 guidance, I should have missed some of the finest plants of the 

 country. To Prof. Henriquez, and to Signor Moller, of the Uni- 

 versity of Coimbra, and to many others, I beg also to tender the 

 expression of my heartfelt thanks for their unvarying kindness to me. 



My explorations were chiefly confined to three centres : Oporto, 

 the Gerez Mountains in the extreme north of the kingdom, and 

 four or five days spent with Mr. Moller on the Serra da Estrella, or 

 great central range of Portugal. Two or three short walks near 

 Coimbra also produced some good plants. It may be convenient to 

 take these localities in their order. 



And first, Oporto. — Here my work was chiefly confined to an 

 examination of the sandy coast-line running north from the mouth 

 of the Douro as fiir as Matasinhos, a distance of five or six miles; 

 hut only about half this distance is available for botanical purposes, 

 the suburbs of Oporto stretching far in this direction. In all this 

 part of the country the underlying rock is granite, large tracts being 

 hare rock, sometimes clothed with a scanty covering of barren soil, 

 ■frees are almost wanting, except the two species of pine (Pmu$ 

 ^inea L. and P. Pinaster Soland.), which are common throughout 

 Portugal, either as mitives or sown. My first walk in this direction 

 (June 7th) was taken m the company of Mr. E. Johnston, a 

 gentleman who has devoted much time to the botany of the Oporto 

 district. It is of course impossible to give anything like a compJ ,e 

 llsfc of the plants observed, so that I must confine myself to ft 

 mention of those most likely to be interesting to an English 

 botanist. Lobelia urens L. and Trktago vUcosa btev. were common, 

 and served to remind one of the botany of the South-west of 

 England, as also Erka cilia ris L. Belli* pemmi* L. was scarce, 

 wrt was probably common earlier in the year. It was curious to 



h ud SpirantJies autumnalis Kioh. in full tlower early in June, the 

 ttoreso as Messrs. Wilkomm and Lange give August and September 

 as the flowering months for this plant in Spain. Spirma Ulmariti 

 y- was pointed out to me in one spot; it is one of the rarest plants 

 111 Portugal. Cyperacea seemed scarce about Oporto: some fifteen 

 bailee further south, near Esmoriz, they were more numerous. 

 About Oporto I remember only Cyprus longm L. and / 0. badius 

 ^H (if this be really distinct); Caress trinerds DegL, C.dmrts* 



