which he proposed to describe systematically. When he arrived, all
the hotel bedrooms were reserved for the members of the general
council which had been summoned; and I offered him board and
lodging: a shakedown in a room overlooking the sea; fare consisting
of lampreys, turbot and sea urchins: common enough dishes in that
land of Cockayne, but possessing no small attraction for the
naturalist, because of their novelty. My cordial proposal tempted
him; he yielded to my blandishments; and there we were for a
fortnight chatting at table de omni re scibili after the botanical
excursion was over.

With Moquin-Tandon, new vistas opened before me. Here it was no
longer the case of a nomenclator with an infallible memory: he was
a naturalist with far-reaching ideas, a philosopher who soared
above petty details to comprehensive views of life, a writer, a
poet who knew how to clothe the naked truth in the magic mantle of
the glowing word. Never again shall I sit at an intellectual feast
like that: 'Leave your mathematics,' he said. 'No one will take
the least interest in your formula. Get to the beast, the plant;
and, if, as I believe, the fever burns in your veins, you will find
men to listen to you.'

We made an expedition to the center of the island, to Monte Renoso,
with which I was already familiar. I made the scientist pick the
hoary everlasting (Helichrysum frigidum), which makes a wonderful
patch of silver; the many-headed thrift, or mouflon grass (Armeria
multiceps), which the Corsicans call erba muorone; the downy
marguerite (Leucanthemum tomosum) ,which, clad in wadding, shivers
amid the snows; and many other rarities dear to the botanist.
Moquin-Tandon was jubilant. I, on my side, was much more attracted