306 NATURAL HISLORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. ¥ 
for a day, took our passages to Southampton in the Peninsular and 
Oriental steamer Nyanza, which, after a pleasant sail in the Mediter- 
ranean, a few hours’ stop at Gibraltar, and a delightful run across the 
Bay of Biscay, we reached on the 26th of June, after an absence of eight 
weeks. IJhad intended going to Lisbon from Malta, but circumstances 
compelled me to return home first, and it was not until the month 
of August that I was able to leave London for Lisbon. 
I arrived in Paris on the 80th, the leaves of the horse-chestnut trees 
in the Tuilleries Gardens were getting quite tinged, and one or two 
had lost their leaves, showing already the advance of autumn. Leaving 
Paris in the evening, Bordeaux was reached about half-past seven, the 
frontier was crossed about four in the afternoon, and I was in Madrid 
about 11 o’clock a.m., on the Ist of September. 
The remainder of the day, and the whole of the following day, was 
spent between the Picture Gallery and the Museum. In the latter the 
fine collection of minerals and marbles, and the skeleton of the Hegathe- 
rium americanum, were particularly noted. ‘The latter is in the centre 
of a badly-lighted apartment, and is completely covered by.a case of 
wood, with glass panes. I observed, on a shelfin one of the glass-cases, 
in this room, a collection of bones marked as from Madagascar, some of 
the teeth indicating that they belonged to good-sized carnivores, but I 
could not succeed in getting any particulars about them. 
Leaving Madrid at 8 o’clock p.u., on the 2nd, I arrived in Lisbon at 
6 o'clock a.m., on the 4th. Professor Bocage was at Cintra, and very 
kindly invited me to spend Sunday, the 6th, there with him. Friday 
and Saturday afternoons, were spent visiting Belem and the Botanical 
Gardens. I noted the following, among others, as in flower in the 
Botanical Gardens. Duranta plumerw, Leonotis leconurus, Bignonia 
jasminodes, Habrothamnus cyaneus, Tecoma mexicana, Clerodendron 
fragrans, Bougainvillea brasiliensis. The latter was in full flower, the 
bracts a bright red, and wonderfully attractive. One branch had 
escaped from the large greenhouse, and, judging from appear- 
ances, must have grown in the open air for several years; it was 
covered with blossoms. This genus rather puzzles me. In the 
tropics I have only known it to flower well in sheltered spots, and, 
apparently, it likes a sea-breeze; at Naples it grows freely, and flowers 
along the Villa Reale. Here, at Lisbon, it was in as full health 
as ever I saw it ‘in the tropics, and yet the difference in the mean tem- 
perature of Lisbon and Mahé is very great. It was impossible not to _ 
notice the great Dracaena draco, a fine Araucaria excelsa (in fruit), 
one or two specimens of Licus elastica, Pittospermun undulata, Gre- 
villa robusta (in fruit), Casuarina equisetifolia (a poor straggling tree, 
about 23 feet high, but bearing fruit), Zaxodium distichum (in fruit), a 
large example of Erythrina secund:flora, and Lagerstremiu indica (this 
grows in Lucca to be quite a large tree, it flowers profusely, and does 
not appear to suffer from occasional frosts). 
Everywhere about Lisbon, even in the very centre of the town, 
were to be found beautiful trees of Schcenus molle. The female trees were 
