234 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GO SSI P. 



future. Herein is my justification for the following 

 remarlcs uj^on a paper in the August number of 

 Science-Gossip, entitled " Botanical Notes in the 

 Neighbourhood of Cader Idris." It is upon the internal 

 evidence of the paper in question, to be found Upon 

 pages 174 and 175, that I ground my convictions as 

 to the incorrect determination of some of tlie plant 

 names -whose discovery it records ; for none of those 

 to which I allude have been previously known in the 

 Cader Idris district. I will take the species to which 

 I demur, in the paper referred to, in the same order 

 as there found : — i. Hypericum viontanum : upon an 

 old wall, just outside the town of Dolgelly. An old 

 wall, and that in a slate district, is a most unusual 

 station for a plant xerophilous — dry or limestone- 

 loving— in its distribution. It is unrecorded for 

 Merioneth, both in " Topographical Botany " and in 

 the Rev. A. Ley's supplementary list of Merioneth 

 plants in the Bot. Loc. Record Club Report for 1875. 

 I fancy dithium may be the species really found, 

 2. Epilobiiim teh'agonum is recorded as " so attractive 

 with its long flower-stems, of a rich rose-colour, con- 

 stituting a very showy wild flower " ! The writer very 

 evidently intends some other plant, if his description 

 is correct ; for E. tetragoniim , both in the type-fomi 

 and in the variety obscuriun, is a veiy weedy, small- 

 flowered, inconspicuous sort of plant. I cannot guess 

 at the plant really found, if it was not the showy Rose- 

 bay Willow-herb {E. angtistifoliiiiu) of gardens, and 

 of rocky sub-alpine districts. 3. Allium Ainpelo- 



prasnm is described as ' ' carpeting the woods 



really pretty in its delicate white flowers, whilst 

 assailing the nose fearfully," when clearly the too 

 common Ramson or Ramp is intended. The puzzle 

 here is how the familiar A. iirsimtm got called by 

 the name of the Leek of South and Central Europe : 

 a species rarely found in England, and very doubtfully 

 indigenous where it does occur. 4. Droscra inter- 

 media, written of as observed about the "lower 

 ridges of Cader," is a somewhat singular discovery, 

 if the name be the correct one. I greatly doubt it, 

 and for this reason, — D. intermedia is a species of 

 restricted vertical range, hitherto found only below 

 100 yards in elevation, upon the sandy heaths and 

 I^eat mosses of our island, and chiefly upon its eastern 

 side. I am inclined to accept a long-leaz'ed vSundew 

 as having been observed ; but in all probability it 

 was D. anglica, which, when dwarfed in size from 

 elevation of site, is in physiognomy very similar to 

 intermedia. In such a condition the bowed shank 

 of the flowering-stem, springing laterally from the 

 rosette of leaves, would alone readily distinguish 

 between them. 5. Asplenium septentrionale under 

 the precipices of Cader in such plenty as to be 

 obtainable by the "basketful" ! There is a much 

 greater probability of this fern having been seen — if 

 it was seen and not recorded on hearsay evidence — 

 than is the case with the four previously questioned 

 species ; still, in face of the other evident errors in 



the paper I am referring to, one cannot help doubt- 

 ing. I will say nothing as to my own personal 

 knowledge of the mountain in question ; but it seems 

 somewhat curious that the Rev. A. Ley, an inde- 

 fatigable and experienced botanist, accustomed to 

 climbing, should never have seen it when exploring 

 the district, prior to furnishing a fairly exhaustive 

 list of Merioneth plants for the Bot. Loc. Record 

 Club. This gentleman, writing to me in regard to 

 this supposed discovery, with leave to quote his 

 opinion, remarks : — " Of course one would hesitate to 

 say it did not exist on the mountain''; but if so, it must 

 be in very small quantity, and difficult to find." The 

 mountain has also been well worked by others, and 

 yet this fern still stands unrecorded for Merioneth in 

 "Topographical Botany," 6, Saxi/raga nivalis not 

 far from the summit of the mountain, is far more 

 likely to have been one of those dwarfed examples of 

 Saxifraga stellaris, with the branches of the cyme 

 bearing the flowers suppressed or aborted (giving an 

 appearance as of blooms clustered in a capitulum 

 or head), which are so often mistaken for nivalis. This 

 opinion is strengthened by the fact of stellaris never 

 being mentioned at all as a Cader species ; whereas 

 it is on all parts of the Cader, at the proper season, 

 "singularly abundant and of all sizes and develop- 

 ments." I quote from Mr. Ley, who searched diligently, 

 he writes me, for nivalis " in the two most likely spots, 

 viz. the precipices ofLlyn Canandof Llyn-y-Cader." 

 Lastly, Linaria Cymbalaria, — a South European 

 species, nowhere indigenous, although freely natural- 

 ized in England,— is written of as " growing where 

 we could not doubt it was truly wild." This is an 

 error, having its origin in want of knowledge as to 

 distribution of European plants. I trust the author 

 of the article I have animadverted upon will pardon 

 my remarks, since prompted only by a profound desire 

 for strict accuracy, even in what some may regard as 

 "little" matters, and by no wish to display critical 

 acumen for its own sake. I should be very glad to 

 be proved in error as to my surmises with regard to 

 the Asplenium and the Droscra, for both of these 

 records, if correct, are valuable and interesting, as 

 adding to our knowledge of the distribution of the 

 former, and of the climatal conditions under which the 

 latter species can survive. Additional Note: — 

 Mr. Jolm Colebrook records of Gentiana acaiilis 

 (Science-Gossip, p. 210), that the species is one 

 most unlikely, from its geographical range, to occur 

 as an indigenous plant in any part of Great Britain. 

 If it were really that species which Mr. Colebrook 

 saw in 1862 (and not G. amarelld), then, where he 

 saw it, it must most certainly have been a garden- 

 escape. Mr. Colebrook quotes from Babington's 

 " Manual" a reference to Cotoneaster on Great Orrae 

 Head (where a single bush of it still exists in an 

 almost inaccessible situation on the side overlooking 

 the town of Llandudno), but omits to say how Mr. 

 Babington dismisses G. acaulis on p. 236 of his 



