618 Notes on British Plants. 



Kentish coast, but it is only in certain places that it occurs ; as 

 at the eastern side of EastWear Bay, and at Lydden Spout, 

 both localities between Folkstone and Dover, and in both it 

 is associated with Statice spathulata. Reigate Hill again is 

 a recorded locality for Ajuga Chamcepitys ; but there I never 

 could meet with it, although it has been found on Buckland 

 Hill, to the west of Reigate, and eastward it grows most 

 abundantly in almost every field about Cobham, in Kent. The 

 name of this place reminds me of another illustration in the 

 exceedingly rare Althcea hirsuta, which was recorded as 

 growing near Cobham nearly fifty years ago, and there it still 

 grows, and has never been found in any other part of the 

 kingdom. 



But amidst all this capriciousness in their choice of stations, 

 most plants evince such constancy in their attachment to par- 

 ticular soils, as would prove them to be mutually adapted to 

 each other. Take for example the genus Arenaria, the very 

 name of which is expressive of the attachment of most of its 

 species to a sandy soil, although this will not hold good with 

 all. Aren.peploides and marina are confined to the sea-coast 

 and its immediate vicinity, and do not ever occur inland. — 

 Aren. rubra, on the other hand, grows in barren sandy soil 

 inland, and sometimes in such quantities that the ground is 

 rendered quite purple with its blossoms. The favorite habi- 

 tats of Aren. serpyllifolia are the driest places, such as wall 

 tops and sandy fields ; on the contrary, Aren. trinervis de- 

 lights in moist, shady, hedge-banks. The only known Bri- 

 tish station for Aren. ciliata is on the limestone cliffs of a 

 mountain in Ireland ; while Aren. verna is found among frag- 

 ments of quartz, &c. on high mountains in the north of Eng- 

 land, Wales, and about Edinburgh, but not in the west of 

 Scotland: and its near ally, the pretty little Aren. rubella, 

 seems to be peculiar to the Breadalbane range in the High- 

 lands of Scotland. 



There are, it is true, many plants which appear to be 

 common to situations the most opposite and soils the most 

 dissimilar ; but such species must be regarded merely as of- 

 fering exceptions to the general rule. Thus, to take for il- 

 lustrations some of our native Orchidacece, while we find the 

 Orchis maculata delighting equally in dry hilly ground and 

 in the wettest bogs, no botanist would ever dream of search- 

 ing for Orchis pyramidalis, O. fusca, or Ophrys apifera in 

 low damp meadows, or expect to find Orchis latifolia, Li- 

 paris Lceselii, or Malaxis paludosa, on dry chalk or lime- 

 stone hills. 



There are also many other circumstances connected with 



