440 Botany, 



soil was the natural home of the plants. As I last week found i^maria 

 lutea in full flower, growing in some quantity in a retired lane leading 

 from Abberley church, in this county, towards Stourport, near the village 

 pound, I would enquire whether any of your readers may have sown the 

 plant there purposely, or whether I may consider it as really placed there 

 by the hand of nature ? I have also found ifypericum calycinum in some 

 abundance in a hedge bordering a grove, and among underwood about 

 the grove, at Little Malvern, at the eastern base of the Herefordshire 

 Beacon. The plants have now a wild aspect, but may have originated 

 from one planted in the grove. I annually find Terbascum virgatum by 

 the side of the road leading from this city to Kidderminster, where it was 

 first observed by Dr. Stokes ; and, though, being so conspicuous a plant, 

 it is always sure to be plucked before it has perfected its seeds, it still 

 obstinately persists in maintaining its station ; from which circumstance, I 

 conclude it to be really wild here, notwithstanding Sir J. E. Smith's idea 

 that it had escaped from ^Irs. Nash's garden at Bevere (Smith's E, Flora^ 

 vol. i. p. 312.), which is, in fact, nearly three quarters of a mile from the 

 spot; and nearer Bevere House I have seen no traces of it. But to recur 

 more particularly to the subject with which I commenced this paper. 



While new plants are doubtless yearly naturalised among us, many of 

 our old native ones are becoming scarce, cease to be found in the stations 

 where they formerly abounded, and may, perhaps, be finally lost to u&. 

 For instance, the Bl-rberis vulgaris, once so common in many places, is 

 now so totally eradicated (at least in this part of the country) that I 

 am not acquainted with a native station for it within thirty miles ; — per- 

 secuted (and justly so) from the haunts of man for its blighting infliuence 

 on our corn, it has now taken to the hoary ruin, and the last time I saw it 

 in a wild state, was (a curious habitat I ) on the picturesque remains of 

 Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire. The destruction of old hedges has also 

 caused the scarcity of jEuonymus europae^us, which is now only found in 

 old fences that have escaped being rooted up. The il/anaibium vulgare,. 

 which fonnerly abounded on the commons at the foot of the Malvern Hills, 

 has been almost totally eradicated by cottagers, who have transferred the 

 plant to their own gardens, for the sake of the medicinal tea which they 

 extract from it. Thus, too, beautiful varieties can no longer be found, as 

 the sole specimens left are often rooted up j and thus I have often searched 

 in vain a second time for lovely specimens I had, on a former occasion, 

 neglected to secure. 



Mr. Bree's observations on the flowering of the I. tuberosa are curious, 

 and similar observations on the irregularities of plants in flowering would 

 l>e very acceptable ; more especially if the causes of such irregularities 

 could be satisfactorily elucidated. I have noticed a small patch of Pr'is 

 foetidissima growing wild in a copse at the foot of Cruckbarrow Hill, near 

 this city, and though I have regularly observed it for some years, I could 

 Hever find it in flower but once. The soil is a heavy red marl, and its 

 situation may not be favourable, as I observed numbers of the same plant 

 most profusely in fruit on the sandstone rocks between Salterton and 

 Sidmouth last autumn, and in greater luxuriance than I ever before no- 

 ticed. In 1827 I found the TuUpa sylvestris in some abundance on a red 

 marl cliff amidst underwood, close to the Severn, at Clerkenleap near 

 Worcester, and several specimens were then in flower ; but since that time 

 no flowers can be met with, though the leaves are abundant enough. The 

 year before last the Crocus vernus was pointed out to me in a field be- 

 tween this city and Cruckbarrow Hill, and several specimens were gathered 

 in flower by myself and friends, but it has not appeared in flower since 

 that time. The ^edum album grows i)lentifully on the rocks at Mal- 

 vern ; and yet never but once, amidst the multiplicity of trailing stems 

 and leaves, could I meet with a flowering branch. The /Ranunculus fluvi- 



