HARDWICKR'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



77 



and, above all, never let liim degenerate into the 

 mere collector: his collection should be for use, 

 and not merely ornaneutal. 



ON CHANGES IN THE LOCALITIES OF 



SOME OF THE RARER ENGLISH 



PLANTS. 



THE query of a correspondent in the January 

 number of Science-Gossip (p. 19) incites mc 

 to make a few observations on the localities of some 

 of the rarer plants of England, and the alterations 

 that may have occurred in several instances, which 

 are very tantalizing to a collector. Compilers of 

 Floras and Manuals copy localities from each 

 other too often without inquiring if they still con- 

 tinue as in years past, and thus a student or collector 

 who depends upon " Botaaists' Guides," or even 

 local catalogues (except of very recent date), will 

 be often disappointed in his researches. It is per- 

 haps hardly to be expected that technical writers 

 on the British Flora, chiefly careful to note the 

 characters of plants, will trouble themselves about 

 localities, when they find them already recorded by 

 good observers, and may of course presume that 

 the plants retain the positions assigned them. 

 But still I think that, in the case of very local 

 species, a coadjutor might be called in who could 

 make inquiries, and might easily get information 

 from well-known botanists in the counties where 

 these rare plants "were said to grow, whether they 

 still continued as placed by former observers, had 

 remained in the spots indicated, spread farther, or 

 become altogether extinct. This would add but 

 little to the letter-press of Floras, where there is 

 generally plenty of blank space, and the advantage 

 to collecting practical botanists would be import- 

 ant, while it would be an advantage to science if 

 the date were given when the local plant was last 

 observed. 



Mr. A. French, of Banbury, inquires as to 

 Thlaspi perfoliatum, which, as one of our rarest 

 cruciferous plants, certainly requires to be specially 

 noted as to its places of grov^th. The neighbour- 

 hood of Witney and Burford, Oxfordshire, was 

 given by Sibthorpe and Sir James Smith, as 

 localities for this plant many years ago, and I pre- 

 sume that Walker, in his " Flora of Oxfordshire," 

 would satisfy himself that it was there. Dr. 

 Hooker, in his recently published " Student's 

 Flora," merely gives "Oxford and Gloucester- 

 shire," without designating any particular spot. I 

 believe, however, that Saperton was intended in 

 the latter county, where the Thlaspi was gathered 

 by a member of the Cotteswolde Field Club. It 

 may probably still remain somewhere about Wilney 

 and Burford, but the plant has extended its range 

 in a northern direction of late years, as it is now to 



be found in some plenty at a place called " Hyate's 

 Pits," an abandoned quarry of oolitic stone in the 

 parish of Snow's Hill, Gloucestershire, though very 

 close to Broadway, in Worcestershire ; and I have 

 also a speciuicn from Evenlode, Worcestershire, 

 which is, however, in the oolite district. It is 

 certainly important to kuow whether a rare plant 

 has increased or diminished, as in the former case 

 its claims to be considered truly indigenous are 

 better founded. 



There are certain plants found in Britain limited 

 to particular localities, from which they never 

 wander, and which, nevertheless, may be considered 

 true natives, though some of them have got under 

 the ban of Mr. "Watson as " denizens," a name 

 that I by no means approve. For why should the 

 Coioneaster vulgaris or the PotentiUa rupestris, 

 which are both confined to single rocks in Wales, 

 be considered "native," \f\i\\e Eryngiitm campestre, 

 found in several spots both in England and Wales, 

 distant from each other, is placed merely as a 

 "denizen"? With regard to this latter plant, said, 

 I think incorrectly, to be found "near ballast-heaps," 

 but which I have seen growing on Worle Hill, 

 Weston-super-Mare, far from any ballast, and in a 

 truly natural position, I can adduce another truly 

 inland locality, having seen the leaves of the plants 

 freshly gathered from a waste spot between Ted- 

 stone, Herefordshire, and Upper Sapey, Worces- 

 shire, in August, 1SG7. This is a plant not often 

 to be met with in flower, but its leaves are charac- 

 teristic and cannot be mistaken. 



Complaints are frequently made by collecting 

 botanists that they cannot find a plant at the spot 

 indicated, which perhaps has been too hastily 

 searched, and should have a second visit, unless 

 some sagacious "old inhabitant" can be met with. 

 On my first visit to Craig Breidden, I could not 

 hit upon the exact spot for Toienlilla rupestris, but 

 found it the following day. So I had to explore 

 Braunton Burrows, a wide expanse of sandhills and 

 marshy ground, ere I could detect the very rare 

 Isolepis (or Scirpus) holosckcemis, though it was 

 plentiful in one particular spot in a hollow easily 

 overlooked. Rambling botanists must not there- 

 fore be too hasty in their conclusions. 



It would not be easy to find Draba aizoides on 

 the rocks of the coast of Glamorgan, but it grows 

 kindly on the adjacent walls of Pennard Castle, and 

 will no doubt continue to do so until some change 

 of circumstances determines the fate of the ruinated 

 castle itself. I heard that the botanists of the 

 Severn Valley Field Club made an excursion last 

 year to Stokesay, in Shropshire, to gather the 

 Astrantia major, which grows near that place on 

 a Silurian limestone eminence, called the View 

 Edge, ils only locality in Britain; and notwith- 

 standing a diligent hunt, they failed to detect the 

 plant ; yet the same year, guided by a neiglibour- 



