much less beautiful country, but I found some new plants, among them Tulipa undulatifolia , which was afterwards figured from my bulbs in the Botanical Magazine , Plate 6308, and two new Fritillaries, one of which was named after me by Boissier and figured as F. acmopetala by Baker in the Botanical Magazine , Plate 6321. This is a late plant of no great beauty, which seems quite hardy in England. The other was Fritillaria dasyphylla Baker and is figured on the same plate as the last.
An hour from Godjik I passed the place where the last English traveller, who followed this road twenty years ago, was murdered by robbers, who at that time were worse than now. But since 1876 I believe the country has again become unsafe, and it is likely to remain so until better government is instituted in Asia Minor. It is very hard for travellers to know what risk they run in such countries. As a rule English consuls magnify the danger, and the local authorities will not let anyone travel if they know that brigands are about. But though I always had a gun or rifle in my hands, and never carried more money than was necessary or stayed long enough in one place to allow an attack to be planned, yet I had two very narrow escapes of being captured in Greece and Macedonia. Between Godjik and Mughla I had to cross the Dalaman Chai. Owing to snow melting in the mountains the ford was very deep, and my guide would not lead as he said that I, being the heaviest man on the strongest horse, ought to go first. After several attempts in which my horse almost lost his footing, a local peasant came and showed 119 the best place to cross. I stayed that night in a village called Ortaga, where another old soldier, who had pleasant reminiscences of English officers under whom he had served in the Crimea, was very friendly and did his best to get us what little food was procurable.
The next day’s journey was a ride of eleven hours, partly over prettily wooded hills where Valonia Oaks and a little-known tree peculiar to this district, Liquidambar orientalis (cf. Trees of Great Britain , 3, 505), are found, They were not, however, so large as one which I have since seen in the public gardens by the railway station at Montpellier, where the climate is very similar to that of Western Asia Minor. I also found two more new species of Fritillary, as well as the handsome Tulip, T. undulatifolia . We passed two of the large Circassian villages which have been planted all over the fertile parts of Asia Minor since the Crimean War, and are easily recognised by the little granaries raised on posts, and by the wattled enclosures round the houses and fields. These Circassians do not mix much with the Turks, who say they are thieves and much addicted to stealing horses and cattle, and as they are bold fellows and well armed, and not hospitable to strangers, I never stayed in one of their villages.
In the evening we forded another river, the Qamlam Chai, and stayed the night at a poor coffee shed on its banks. The country round here is very pretty, a good deal like some parts of the Highlands, though better wooded; it would be a very good field for a naturalist in summer, though the mountains are not so high as those in Lycia, In the afternoon I crossed a level plain of beautiful smooth grass and reached Mughla, the largest town I had seen since leaving Smyrna, at an elevation of about 3,500 feet. There I found a new khan outside the town, and met the only European
