Natural Histonj in the English Counties. SS 



6. Dried fruits, seeds, woods, gums, or any other miscellaneous articles, 

 fossil as well as recent, which may tend to illustrate the science. 



Professor Henslow has added the Jlthae^a hirsuta, from Kent, to the col- 

 lection of British plants. Although this species is not mentioned in the 

 English Flora, nor figured in the English Botany, it had been previously 

 detected and recorded as British in Symmon's Synopsis, and thence in- 

 serted into Turner and Dillwyn's Guide, and Hull's Flora, It grows plen- 

 tifully in several cultivated fields about the point of junction of the three 

 parishes of Cobham, Cuxton, and Strood, flowering throughout July. — 

 J. S. H. Cambridge, April, 



At Cambridge tfie zeal for Natural History is daily on the increase in the 

 university. Professor Henslow holds a natural history party every Friday 

 evening at his own house, which is numerously attended by the friends of 

 the science. — J. W. Cambridge, March 25. 



Scabiosa arv^nsis. — Sir J. E. Smith says of this plant, that it is reported 

 to be sometimes smooth, with all the leaves undivided, but that this has 

 not been seen in England. I found it answering this description, on the 

 5th of August, 1825, in the Isle of Wight. — E, K. April, 1827. 



Ser7'dfida tinctoria. — In Sowerby's Botany it is observed that this plant 

 is said to have been seen with white flowers. The English Flora does not 

 mention the white variety. In a small wood near Dulwich, in August, 1 827, 

 I found it in abundance, both with white and with purple flowers. — Id. 



Scilla nutans. — In a part of Combe Wood, where the trees had been 

 recently felled, I found three specimens of this plant, with white flowers, in 

 1827.— Id. 



Folemonium ccerulewn. — Sir J. E. Smith observes that this plant is some- 

 times seen with white flowers. I have frequently seen them change from 

 blue to white, and watched the gradual progress, unattended, at the time, 

 with any appearance of decay. — Id. 



Localities (or what botanists call habitats) of rare British Plants. — The 

 following plants being not very commonly met with in the neighbourhood 

 of London, your readers may be well pleased to know where to find them. 

 Ornithogalum umbellatum may be found in plenty on the point of land 

 adjoining Teddington Lock, and by the river side in that neighbourhood, 

 ^nchusa sempervirens may be found in a hedge on the right hand, near to 

 Ham House, in going from the river towards Ham Street, ^''ster Tripolium, 

 usually found by the sea-coast, I gathered, in 1824, on the banks of the 

 Thames, a little above high-water mark, on the way between Richmond and 

 Kew. — M ^ '^ ^ ^ 



A root of the Mandrahe, iliandragora officinalis, of the extraordinary 

 length of 3 ft. and 'weighing 1 lbs., was lately dug up, in removing 

 the ruins of an ancient edifice at Brighton. As the mandrake is not 

 indigenous, and as there has been no garden in the field where it grew 

 for many ages, the plant is presumed to have stood there for several 

 centuries, probably since the demolishing of monastiq buildings by Henry 

 VIII., at which time the root of the mandrake was held in high estimation 

 by credulous persons. The mandrake is generally believed to be the dudaini 

 of the ancient Hebrews, and the plant which was so coveted by Rachel. 

 {Brighton Herald.) We think this root much more likely to be that of the 

 common white bryony, Bryonia alba. — Cond. 



A Woodcoclc's Nest, with four eggs in it, is now in Chicksand woods, 

 near Sheffbrd, in Bedfordshire. The eggs are about the size of a bantam 

 hen's, are of a bluish white ground, with irregular brown spots. {Essex 

 Herald, April. 15.) 



Rare Birds shot in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, in January last : — 

 A fine specimen of the least woodpecker, Picus minor Lin., which is, per- 

 haps, the only specimen known to be British ; a particularly fine specimen 

 of the Grev Phalarope, le Phalarope afestons denteleSjBw^. ; a specimen of 



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