Wulfenia Carinthiaca* 75 



Notes on Wulfenia Carinthiaca, Jacquin. By James 

 Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S. 



{Received December 12th, i8gj. 



or many years this beautiful member of the natural 

 order Scrophularinece has maintained its prestige as the 

 most local, perhaps, of European plants, if we except the 

 Dioscorea pyrenaica, Bubani, from the P. de Gavarni, 

 Eastern Pyrenees. 



To those who have read what may be called the ' Pioneer 

 Guide-book' to the Dolomites and Tyrol, the name of Wul- 

 fenia will be familiar, for Mr. G. C. Churchill, who 

 collaborated with the late Mr. Gilbert in the production of 

 this work,* based upon three successive visits in 1861-63, 

 to what was till then a 'terra incognita' almost, to the tourist 

 or botanist, made the search after this plant one of the 

 chief aims of his journeys. Twice were the travellers 

 disappointed at finding it past flower, but the third time they 

 were fully rewarded. The following notes, written by my 

 brother, the Rev. A. H. Melvill, and my sister, Miss Evelyn 

 Melvill, who spent four months in the Tyrol this summer 

 (1893), may be interesting : 



We left Lienz on Tuesday, July 25, by an early train for Greifenburg. 

 With very great difficulty we succeeded in procuring a carriage to drive us to 

 Hermagor, a distance of about 15 miles. Arrived there we had also great 

 trouble in finding rooms, as the Post Hotel was full. At length we found 

 some in the small hotel opposite the Post, where we were made exceedingly 

 comfortable. We made enquiries first thing about the Wulfenia, and found 

 the landlady knew all about it, in fact had dried specimens, and showed us in 

 the garden some living plants, but out of flower. She said she would engage 

 a guide for us, and afterwards, while we were talking to him and making 

 arrangements for an early start the next morning, a German gentleman came 



* The Dolomite Mountains, by Josiah Gilbert and F. C. Churchill, F. G. S. 

 London: Longmans. 1864. 



