INTRODUCTION. 



Be thy regard : aiid where low tufted broom, 



Or box or berried juniper arise; 



Or the tall growth of glossy-rinded beech ; 



And where the hurrowing rabbit turns the dust, 



And where the dappled deer delights to bound. 



Such are the downs of Banstead, edg'd with woods, 



And tow'ry villas ; such Dorcestrian fields, 



Whose flocks innumerous whiten all the land : 



Such those slow-climbing wilds, that lead the step 



Insensibly to Dover's windy cliff, 



Tremendous height ! and such the clover'd lawns 



And sunny mounts of beauteous Xormanton, 



Health's cheerful haunt ; 



* * such the spacious plain 



Of Sarum, spread like ocean's boundless round, 



Where solitary Stonehenge, grey with moss, 



Ruin of ages, nods." 



Dry and exposed granitic syenitic and trappoid 

 heights, however, such as the Malvern hills, and even 

 many of the mountaiDS of "Wales, rather answer to 

 the description of "herlless granite," than are re- 

 markable for many botanical rarities. Yet serpentine, 

 rare in Britain, but which forms a limited tract in 

 the vicinity of the Lizard, in Cornwall, has been 

 famed in botanical record, for its nourishment of 

 the beautiful Cornish heath, Erica vagans, which is 

 almost confined to this mineralogical formation. The 

 Eev. C. A. JOHNS, in his account of the Lizard, 

 says, " The great characteristic in the botany of this 

 (the Lizard) district is the extreme abundance of the 

 Cornish or Goonhilly heath. It may be said to grow 

 over the whole country, from Mullion to the Black- 

 head, except where it has been extirpated by the 

 plough. Every hedge bank and road-side is full of 

 it, and, if we enter the cottages, twrf composed of it, 



