IN THE MOREA. 



63 



Silver Fir, we were not sufficiently advanced to find those Alpine 

 plants which the height of the summit promised. We dined under 

 a rock, from whose side descended a purling spring among violets, 

 primroses, and the starry hyacinth, mixed with black Satyrium, and 

 different coloured Orches. The flowering ash hung from the sides of 

 the mountain, under the shade of which bloomed saxifrages, and the 

 snowy Isopyrum, with the Campanula Pyramidalis ; this latter plant 

 is now called x^^^vi it yields abundance of a sweet milky fluid, and 

 was said to promote a secretion of milk, a quality first attributed to it 

 under the doctrine of signatures. Our guides made nosegays of the 

 fragrant leaves of the Fraxinella ; the common nettle was not for- 

 gotten as a pot herb, but the Imperatoria seemed to be the favorite 

 sallad. Among the shrubs I noticed our gooseberry tree, and the 

 Celtis Australis grew wild among the rocks. 



April 18. — The passage to Mistra was difficult from the craggy 

 nature of the road, and dangerous from the robbers who infested the 

 mountains. We were now on the confines of Panayotti's territory ; 

 and it was thought advisable that we should take five of his men 

 well armed, and five from the next captain. Our road was lengthened 

 by the circumstance of a bridge which was broken down, and we 

 were obliged to make a considerable detour; we had frequently 

 occasion to alight and climb precipices, where our mules, with diffi- 

 culty, followed us. The day was remarkably cold, and there had 

 been a fall of snow while we were passing the ridge of the mountains. 

 The sea pine, which grew here, had quite another appearance j it 

 arrived at a large size, and, from the bark covered with lichens, the 

 trees seemed of a great age. Vegetation was yet slowly advancing: 

 the flowers of the vernal crocus, and the two-leaved squill were just 

 appearing. I noticed the dried skeleton of the Morina Persica, and 

 the Onopordum ; a Marrubium, and a fragrant Nepeta that I had found 

 on Parnassus. Taygetus would afford a rich field of enquiry to the 

 botanist, but the unsettled state of the country would not allow him 

 to examine it with care. 



