A chemist’s HOLIDAYJOTTINGS IN FRANCE. 
247 
or cordials, in particular, are in universal demand, and bring an income, it is 
said, of nearly £20,000 a year. The composition of these liqueurs, of which 
there are three kinds, the green, the yellow, and the white, is not known. 
Balm, wormwood, a small pink, and the buds of a fir, are said to be ingre¬ 
dients, but there are probably several others,'—among which I could fancy, 
judging from the taste of the yellow liqueur, there might be Astrantia and 
Meum , both common plants in the meadows round the Chartreuse. 
The subalpine woods of this part of Dauphiny produce the Spruce Fir 
(Abies excelsa DC.), the source of genuine Burgundy Pitch, which however 
is not collected, though it easily might be, as one sees it streaming from the 
tree-trunks on all sides. The Silver Fir is also common : it yields, I may 
remind you, the rare and fragrant Strasburg Turpentine, once officinal amongst 
us, under the name of Terebinthina Argentoratcnsis. This turpentine is ob¬ 
tained by puncturing small swellings in the bark of young trees, and allowing 
th6 single drop of clear turpentine which exudes from the puncture, to run 
into some small vessel held below to receive it. The Scotch Fir is also found 
in some districts, and what is remarkable, the common mistletoe grows upon 
it, in preference it would almost seem, to the apple-trees which arc sometimes 
in near proximity. 
The common Colchicum, I noticed in many places throwing up its purple 
flowers among the green herbage of orchards and meadows ;—and in a few 
alpine situations, I also gathered Colchicum aljpinum DC., a species with 
flower and conn of much smaller size. 
Actcca spicata L., a rare plant in England, is found in the mountain woods 
near Bourg cl’Oisans ; and its root which I dug up and dried, is so like that 
of the American Actcca racemosa L. that I do not think one could distinguish 
them. 
Our English Foxglove was nowhere seen in Dauphiny, but the yellow 
Digitalis grandiflora All., and the small white-flowered 1). lutea L. were of 
frequent occurrence. Henbane, I often noticed, especially near Briancon, 
where it was very fine by the roadside. 
Lavender,—the genuine plant of our English gardens, is very abundant in 
some parts of the country, growing in profusion on the rocky hillsides, but 
no use appears to be made of it. Many other beautiful labiates are also 
seen, of which Hyssop, with its bright blue flowers is one of the more rare. 
The great yellow Gentian was nearly past flowering at the time of my visit, 
but it was still conspicuous in many an alpine pasture, as was also the white 
Hellebore ( Veratrum album L.), a plant affecting similar situations. Arnica 
montana L. was also nearly out of flower, but it must be a splendid ornament 
of the mountain meadows in the earlier summer. In many of these meadows, 
I may mention that grass seems quite a subordinate constituent, so thickly is 
the ground covered with other plants. 
Proceeding to Briancon, that little mountain city on the confines of Italy, 
we were struck with the appearance of the numerous small trees ot the Bri¬ 
an con Plum ( Prunus Brigantiaca Fill.), the branches of which were often 
thickly clustered with fruit, still far from ripe. The tree is indigenous to 
this part of France and is not an object of cultivation. Its fruits,, which are 
hardly eatable, are ■ gathered in the autumn for the sake of their kernels, 
which yield by expression a fatty oil, considered b} r the peasants a useful me¬ 
dicine both for man and beast. I bought some ot it, and found it to have an 
agreeable flavour and a slight odour of bitter almonds : further than that it 
was “ tres-bonne pour la colique ,” I could not gain any very definite idea as 
to its virtues. # . 
Briancon, however, has another pharmaceutical interest, in the manna 
which old writers relate is, or can be, collected from the larches that grow in 
