HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The low ground east of the hills may have beeu 

 denuded of its drift by the current, that at no very 

 remote period swept southward across it. That 

 such a current once existed is evident, as the drift- 

 hills south of the Shannon, between Eoynes and 

 Loghill, are almost entirely composed of fragments 

 of rocks from the hills west of Lough Corrib, county 

 Galway ; this current, however, could scarcely affect 

 the Burren Hills, and on the Boulder-clay drift 

 seems to be entirely absent, while among them it is 

 only found in a few valleys, and these nearly all in 

 the vicinity of Galway Bay. One reason may suggest 

 itself, on account of the relation between these and 

 other limestone mountains in Ireland, — those of the 

 Queen's County and the county Sligo. In both 

 these groups, as well as in the Burren, the absence 

 of Boulder-clay drift is remarkable, although the 

 neighbouring hills in all cases are more or less 

 covered with it ; consequently it would appear that 

 on account of the nature of the rock, when the 

 other hills were covered with ice during the Glacial 

 period, these lime hills were open, leaving them a 

 prey to marine and meteoric abrasion. 



We now enter Glen Columbkille, a long wide 

 valley near the west margin of the mountain -group, 

 and separated from the adjoining plain by remark- 

 able roundish hills, a sketch of one of which has 

 already been given (see fig. 59, p. 84, vol. viii.). The 

 view of the valley is from the " Corkscrew," which 

 winds up the steep hill westward of Columbkille 

 cottage, the green field and dark wood of the glen 

 contrasting with the bare rocky terraced hills of 

 limestone ; while beyond, in the distance, are the com- 

 paratively tame Silurian hills of Siieve Aughta. 

 We may now say a little about the geology of the 

 district. 



ASTRANTIA MAJOR IN SHROPSHIRE. 



TN Science-Gossip for July last (No. 91) is an 

 -*- ingenious article from my sagacious friend, 

 the Rev. J. D. La Touche, who, in touching upon 

 the " Arcbfeology of Rare Plants," has truly ob- 

 served that the Weo Edge, near Stokesay, Salop, 

 " is the only place in England where the Astrantia 

 major grows with any appearance of being indi- 

 genous," and has faithfully described the spot. But 

 though Mr. La Touche has pleaded powerfully for 

 the " Roman mason " who was kind enough to 

 bring the Astrantia in a bit of pottery from Italy 

 to adorn a garden in Britain, I must be allowed to 

 take a brief on the other side, and disallow the 

 Roman property in the Astrantia. 



I therefore contend that where a plant has been 

 noticed growing at a particular spot from time 

 immemorial, that it is rightly to be considered indi- 

 genous to the soil, unless, some undeniable fact or 

 accredited statement as to its first appearance there 



can be adduced, which would settle its position 

 another way. No mere opinion or specious argu- 

 ment founded only ^on supposition ought to be 

 allowed to prevail against a natural appearance 

 maintained for an unknown time. Suspicion may 

 indeed attach to a conspicuous plant cultivated of 

 old in gardens, like Elecampane {Inula Heleniuni), 

 and other domesticated plants seldom found far 

 from human habitations ; and in the case of the 

 mural Linaria cymbalaria and Anacharis alsi- 

 nastrmn, it is known that they are " aliens," and 

 when they were first noticed in this country. But 

 here is a plant found growing freely in several parts 

 of an elevated wood, and near no habitation, having 

 also existed at the locality no one knows how long — 

 the late eminent botanist, Mr. Borrer, thought 

 "for ages," — and yet we are called upon by Mr. 

 La Touche to come to the " inevitable " conclusion 

 that a " Roman mason " brought the Astrantia " in 

 some way " from his native Italy. Instead of this 

 conclusion being " inevitable," I must say that I 

 think it a very weak invention of an enemy to the 

 claim of the Astrantia to be a true British plant. 

 Because it is probable, or even provable, that 

 limestone from the Weo Edge was taken to build a 

 Roman villa six or eight miles off, it is surely a 

 "tion sequitur" that plants were in return brought 

 from the Roman villa to the limestone quarry ! 

 Had the Astrantia been found close to the site of 

 the ruined Roman villa, where there was perhaps 

 once a garden, a more colourable argument might 

 have been urged. But to suppose that " Roman 

 workmen may have settled on this spot " — that is, 

 the quarry on the top of the hill — and "in some 

 way brought the plant with them," seems a most 

 unlikely supposition. Workmen, in general, do 

 not live beside the quarry they get stone from ; and 

 the Roman who built the villa whose relics have 

 been upturned, was most likely to employ British 

 workmen to quarry the stone he wanted— common 

 labourers of the country. That these ordinary 

 getters of stone should have had ornamental gar- 

 dens close to the quarry, and nourished an Italian 

 flower there for ornament's sake, seems to me the 

 height of improbability. Even that any Roman 

 legionary should have taken such a fancy to the 

 Astrantia as to have brought it among his impedi- 

 menta across the Alps is quite incredible. Nor is 

 it evident how seeds of the plant could have been 

 brought by Roman soldiers or masons in an acci- 

 dental way. Many relics of Roman villas have 

 been found in England, as among the Cotswold 

 Hills, and in other places ; but no Astraiitia has 

 turned up anywhere else but on this Weo Edge, in 

 Shropshire. In fact, as far as I know, the Romans 

 have left no vegetable traces of their dominion in 

 Britain, except in the Roman Nettle {Urtica pilu- 

 lifera), found very sparingly on or near old Roman 

 stations as an accidental wanderer; or they may 



