JULY. 972 



associated with our recollections, or recorded in our 

 Floras, they are considered as denizens, or by the too 

 credulous botanist who observes them, stated to be 

 "certainly wild." Of such undoubted exotic origin is 

 the Thorn-apple (Datura Stramonium,) often seen on 

 dung-hills, the rough-leaved Borage {Borago officina- 

 lis), Purple Goafs-beard (Tragopogon porrifolius), 

 Large-flowered St. John's- Wort (Hypericum calyci- 

 nunt), Caper Spurge (Euphorbia Lathyrus), Birthwort 

 (Aristolochia Clematitis), and probably many others 

 that now pass muster as British plants. 



Ballast heaps and new embankments are almost 

 every year contributing some fresh importation from 

 abroad, or renewing some olitory herb that had been 

 forgotten, and perhaps buried for years. In 1843 I 

 observed a considerable quantity of Lepidium Draba 

 on an embankment raised in connection with the 

 new iron bridge just then erected over the Teme, at 

 Powick, near Worcester, though the plant had been 

 previously unknown in the neighbourhood, and it yet 

 maintains its new position. Mr. JAMES MOTLEY 

 discovered Malva verticillata in corn-fields, near Lla- 

 nelly, in Glamorganshire, in 1845, and in considerable 

 abundance. Various other instances might be adduced. 

 In the summer of 1850 I found a great quantity of 

 Atriplex kortensis, growing in the utmost luxuriance 

 on the embankment of the Oxford and Wolverhanip- 

 ton Railway, at Tallow Hill, near Worcester, though 

 I had never seen the species any where in cultivation 

 in the vicinity. From what distance the soil had been 

 brought I cannot exactly say, but as a tunnel and 

 cutting is not far removed, it could not have been a 

 very great way. Whether in these instances the seeds 



