438 Botany. 



here ; while, curious enough, it now grows in profusion on the banks of 

 the saltwater canal formed by Brindley to connect Droitwich with the 

 Severn, which was only finished in 1771, and was thus quite a novel un- 

 dertaking at the time Dr. Stokes edited his edition of Withering. That 

 plants, therefore, change their stations, and cease to grow where they 

 formerly abounded, is very evident j and I have myself noticed plants in 

 habitats where afterwards no diligence could find them: thus, in 1821, I 

 found C^robus sylvaticus on the bank of the Severn just below Worcester, 

 though it has not since appeared there, perhaps washed away by the 

 autumnal floods which are ever making ravages on the bank of the river, 

 and it is not unlikely it might have been brought down the stream origin- 

 ally to the spot I have mentioned, as it has not occurred to me any where 

 else in the neighbourhood. In the autumn of 1822, 1 found -Erica vagans 

 on some heathy ground on the red sand of the Upper Bromsgrove Lickey 

 (the Lower Lickey, closely adjoining, consists principally of quartz rock) j 

 but I have not been again able to meet with it there, and from recent 

 plantations, alterations of roads, and continued enclosures, I fear it may 

 now be totally eradicated. Leland, in his Itinerary ^ mentions Towbury 

 Hill Camp, near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, as being overgrown with 

 the juniper (cTuniperus communis) where not a single plant of it now 

 exists. 



On the other hand, beautiful plants occasionally rise up in stations 

 where they were before unknown, and sometimes would almost tempt us 

 to disbelieve the evidence of our senses, or that we must have been dozing 

 when we passed the spot so often before unnoticed j I can therefore easily 

 believe Mr. Bree's surprise at being told by Mr. Drummond that /Vis 

 tuberosa grew wild in the neighbourhood of Cork (for botanists are often 

 rather incredulous if a rare plant has not been found by themselves) ; while 

 his pleasure at being shown the spot, and presented with the roots, will be 

 equally appreciated by a genuine botanist. But still we must discriminate, 

 and there does appear ta me something like a doubt hanging over the 

 claim of Hibernia to the /. tuberosa, as a specimen of her indigenous 

 flora; the ominous word "ruin" is mentioned by Mr. Bree, and the infer- 

 ence, therefore, is (till further information be elicited) that the /Vis may 

 have been a tenant of the garden of the "ruin," and thence have insinuated 

 itself around, increasing as it does so much from the roots. In this way, 

 doubtless, some of the plants in our flora have been introduced into the 

 country \ many of the monks in olden time cultivating curious herbs in 

 their gardens for medicinal or superstitious purposes, the gift of some 

 holy brother abroad. Indeed, when we find any rare plant on or in the 

 neighbourhood of a " ruin," we ought to be very suspicious whether the 

 plant is not a naturalisation, rather than a real denizen. Thus I noticed 

 the Dianthus barbatus in the summer of 1827 growing on the ruins of 

 Ragland Castle, Monmouthshu-e ; and Dr. Stokes, in his edition of With- 

 cnngy mentions it as found by him on a limestone wall at King's Weston, 

 near Bristol ; but it can have no real claim to a place in our indigenous 

 flora. ^Saxifraga umbrosa may now be found on some of the rocks at 

 Malvern, having straggled from the neighbouring gardens, though not 

 really wild there. I have found Melissa officinalis in several places near 

 Worcester, but always in the vicinity of gardens or farmhouses, from 

 which it must have escaped, or been accidentally thrown with the out- 

 casts of gardens. Valeriana rubra must be considered another of these 

 insinuating emigrators : like the land-squatters of America, it first takes 

 possession of some old wall of the garden, thence perhaps it advances to a 

 neighbouring sand-hill, or establishes itself unnoticed in a chalk-pit. After 

 the same manner, Antirrhinum majus scales the walls of our gardens, 

 mounting higher and higher \ and at the present moment some luxuriant 

 specimens of the plant may be seen waving their red insignia on the roofs 

 of some lofty old houses on the western side of the cathedral here. Mr» 



