298 WILD FLOWERS OP 



of the plants had lain buried too deep in the soil for 

 vegetation, until freshly turned up, or Nature's wild 

 hand had thrown them hurriedly by a friendly wind 

 from far off, to take advantage of the new conditions 

 of fresh unexhausted soil thus presented to them, it is 

 perhaps too difficult to say positively. All we know 

 is that wherever new soil is turned up, and left ex- 

 posed to vegetable competition 



" the flowers of waste 



Planted here in Nature's haste," 



spring up on all sides in the most luxuriant manner, 

 and soon make a rank bed of struggling crowded 

 overgrowth. 



Various plants of waste ground assume a half 

 domesticated port, as if they had some claim upon the 

 attention of mankind even after they have been dis- 

 carded from his service, or forgotten by all but the vil- 

 lage doctoress. Such is the Vervain, which I have seen 

 in Wales, lingering near the abandoned Logan-stone, 

 and which is seldom, found far from habitations ; and 

 Catmint and Horehound are similar " way-faring" 

 plants. Alexanders (Smyrniwm olusatrum) is perti- 

 naciously attached to old ruins, or mounds anciently 

 inhabited, where it testifies to former colonization ; 

 and Wormwood is often profusely abundant about 

 villages or old farm yards, especially in Wales. Oli- 

 tory herbs may remain many years in abandoned 

 garden ground, or escape from their confines, and in 

 such cases it may be doubtful whether the plant be 

 indigenous at the spot or not. I never saw such a 

 rank growth of fennel any where as met my view on 

 the cliffs about Llandudno, Caernarvonshire, in 1849, 



