268 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



I must premise, however, that as I do not devote 

 my time exclusively to the study of botany, my obser- 

 vations are not so extensive as they might otherwise 

 be; and also that, except where the distance is 

 specified, all the plants enumerated I have found 

 within a radius of about three miles from the village 

 of Brockenhurst, chiefly on the south side. 



The two Lungworts {Pulmonaria officinalis and 

 P. angustifolia) grow pretty commonly in our 

 copses, and strikingly pretty are their deep violet 

 blue corollas when the ground is begemmed with 

 primroses, wood-anemones, and pileworts. I saw a 

 fully-opened flower of P. officinalis as early as the 

 29th of March. The Columbine {Aquilegia vulgaris) 

 with " horn of honey " is more generally distributed, 

 though less plentiful. It is a handsome flower, and 

 well worthy of the place it holds in cottage gardens, 

 sometimes side by side with the Rosebay Willow 

 Herb {Hpilobium angustifolium) which I have seen 

 wild only in one spot, growing with the foxglove 

 among the tall bracken. The Common Gromwell 

 {Lithospermum officinale) I only met with once on 

 the edge of a little forest path. The Nettle-leaved 

 Bellfiower {Campanula trachelium) grows in a wood 

 between this and Boldre, and the Ivy-leaved 

 (C. hederacea) in profusion near Alum Green. In 

 the genus Scutellaria, the general order of things is 

 reversed ; the Lesser Skullcap (S. minor) being far 

 more common than its larger and handsomer relative 

 {S. galericulata). I do not know more than half a 

 dozen localities where the latter grows, and, with 

 one exception, always in very small patches; but 

 S. minor flourishes wherever there is the least mois- 

 ture, and its little pink blossoms are among our 

 commonest waterside flowers. Almost as plentiful 

 are the Loosestrifes {Lysimachia vulgaris and L. 

 nemorum), but L. nummnlaria is much less fre- 

 quently found. On every boggy heath we have the 

 bushy fragrant Forest Myrtle {Myrica gale), the 

 golden Bog AsphodeV^Narlheciam ossifragum), the 

 delicate Bog Pimpernel {Anagallis tetiella) aud two 

 of those curious insectivorous plants, the Sundews, 

 Drosera rotundifolia and D. intermedia, the former 

 abundant, the latter more sparingly intermixed with 

 it. In July I found two specimens of the Pale 

 Butterwort {Pinguecula lusitanica), growing close 

 together, at the edge of a rivulet running through a 

 thick wood some two miles from here, and about 

 five miles east of Hincheslea Bottom, which Mr. 

 Wise mentions as " perhaps the easternmost station 

 known " for this species. Both species of Keed 

 Mace {Typha latifolia and T. angustifolia) grow in 

 this neighbourhood, and so do the White Water 

 Lily (Nymphcea alba), the Yellow Water Lily 

 {Nuphar lutea), the Buckbean {Menyanthes trifo. 

 liata), the Greater and Lesser -Water Plantains 

 {Alisnia plantaga and A. ranunculoides), the Nod- 

 ding Bur-marigold (Bidens cernua), and the Un- 

 branched Bur-reed {Sparganium simplex). The 



Branched Bur-reed {S. ramosum) I have not found 

 nearer than Holmsley, distant some six miles. Of 

 St. John's Worts, six species are more or less com- 

 mon : Hypericum androscemum, H. quadranguium, 

 H. perforatum, H. humifusum, H. pulchrum, and 

 H. elodes. Of the Speedwells I have found eleven 

 species, including Veronica buxbaumii, of which 

 I discovered a small patch in blossom in August, 

 and V.polita. The Navelwort {Cotyledon umbilicus) 

 abounds on every hedgebank in this neighbourhood, 

 and may be seen now and then vegetating on a 

 decayed stump. The Lesser Periwinkle {Vinca 

 minor) grows in profusion at Sway, a couple of 

 miles from Brockenhurst, where 1 have also found 

 the Round-leaved Toadflax {Linaria spuria). The 

 Dwarf Purze {Ulex nanus) grows in many parts of 

 our heaths ; the Daflbdil {Narcissus pseudonarcissus) 

 in a few places, and the Small Snapdragon 

 {Antirrhinum orontium) is a common weed. I 

 conclude with my list of Orchidacese, which is not 

 large, but which I insert for what it may be worth '■ 

 Habenaria bifolia, Orchis morio, 0. mascula, 0. 

 ustulata, 0. maculata, Gymnadenia conopsea, and 

 Listera ovata. 



As far as I know no better list of the flowering 

 plants of the New Forest exists than that contained 

 in Wise's " New Forest : its History and Scenery," 

 published in 1867,— but for several reasons this 

 list is not satisfactory. When we find the locali- 

 ties of certain plants specially indicated, leading us 

 to suppose that those are their only habitats, while, 

 as a matter of fact, they are found elsewhere in the 

 Forest more or less commonly, e.g., Cotyledon 

 umbilicus, " Road from Redbridge," " Dragon 

 Lane, Bisterne ; " Scutellaria galericulata, "Chew- 

 ton Glen;" " Beckton Bunny;" {Antirrhinum 

 orontium), " Milton and Somerford ; " {Typha 

 angustifolia), "Ponds at Wootton," and others, 

 such as Campanula trachelium, C. hederacea, 

 Veronica polita, and Linaria spuria omitted alto- 

 gether (with respect to all which vide supra), we 

 are constrained to believe that the list is far from 

 complete and scarcely reliable. Not that the com- 

 piler is to blame ; he probably made it (comprising 

 some 650 species) as perfect as he could for those 

 districts with which he was best acquainted, and he 

 expressly states that it is " not by any means put 

 forward as exhaustive," but the Forest is a field 

 too wide to be undertaken by any one single- 

 handed, be he ever so acute an observer and learned 

 a botanist ; whereas, if a few botanists stationed at 

 various parts were to unite and set to work to care- 

 fully catalogue the species of their respective locali- 

 ties, in a few years a really useful and reliable list 

 would have been compiled. The same remark 

 applies with regard to other branches of Natural 

 Science. 



It is much to be regretted that a New Forest 

 Natural History Society is still a desideratum. 



