BOTANIZING IN BULGARIA. 



5 



dancing the Horo, a national dance accompanied by an instrument 

 like the bagpipes. 



Near to Stara Zagora we collected the quaint little Iris mellita on 

 limestone ground. It is a suitable plant for the rockery, producing, 

 in early spring, flowers of a smoky -brown colour with deeper veins. 

 We also saw several bushes of Rhus Cotinus, known as the " Venetian 

 Sumach " or the " Smoke plant," the hairy lengthened pedicels giving 

 the shrub a very ruddy colour, but near Philippopolis we saw it in 

 full glory growing by the acre, a veritable field of flame. 



South of Philippopolis the Rhodope Mountains are limestone, 

 and here the Haberlea grows in quantity. In summer the leaves get 

 badly burned by the sun and heat. Saxifraga porophylla grows with 

 the Haberlea fairly low down, and higher up the mountains Saxifraga 

 Stribrnyi may be found. 



From Stara Zagora we took train to Kostenetz, via Philippopolis, 

 and enjoyed the hospitality of The O'Mahony at his mountain home. 

 In his pretty garden was an interesting Thorn tree, with very large 

 leaves, collected in the adjoining mountains. From a specimen I 

 brought back, Kew has pronounced it to be the true Crataegus 

 altaica, Lange, a very rare tree. The black-fruited Thorn, Crataegus 

 melanocarpa, was also collected at Tzaribrod near the Servian 

 border. 



On the 26th we started off with The O'Mahony as guide to the 

 snow-topped Bellmaken mountains. The road runs by the side of a 

 tributary which flows into the Maritza, and along the banks were such 

 plants as Actaea spicata, Sambucus racemosa, Geum rivale, Thalictrum 

 aquilegi folium, waving feathery plumes of flowers, and large groups 

 of Bupthalmum speciosum coming into flower. Further on we came 

 across the alpine Clematis (Atragene alpina) always beautiful with 

 its long spraylike growths spangled with stars of blue. Campanula 

 lanata grows from small crevices in the rocks, its shoots radiating 

 from the main stem, but all pressed to the rock-face. Geum bulgaricum 

 was also on the rocks. It is the largest-leaved species I know, some of 

 the leaves measuring nearly a foot across ; the plants are covered all over 

 with glands, making it very sticky to touch ; the flowers are disappoint- 

 ingly small, cup-shaped, of a pale yellow, nodding from stems 9 inches 

 to 2 feet tall. A log hut gave us shelter for the night with a bench 

 of boards for a bed, but one has just as good a chance of a 

 night's sleep on these hard boards as in some of the monastery beds. 

 Near our resting-place, 5600 feet altitude, Pinus Peuke was growing 

 in quantity. The trees were of narrow pyramidal outline, reaching 

 a great height. The young shoots are bright green, bearing leaves 

 about 4 inches long on tufts at the end of the branches. The cones 

 were rather small, about 4 to 5 inches long. Some of the trees were 

 disfigured by the natives tapping them for resin. The following day 

 found us on Bellmaken, and we collected or saw the following plants : 

 Lychnis Viscaria and L. coronaria, Arabis procurrens, Veratrums, 

 Soldanella pusilla and S. montana (with white forms of each), Primula 



