398 Retruspeclive Criticism, 



Mr. Lees's observations (Vol. IV. p. 437.) on " The relative Scarcity of 

 certain Species of Plants, and on Changes in their Habitats," are, it strikes 

 me, so just, and full of interest, that 1 may be excused, perhaps, for follow- 

 ing him a little more in detail, and adding to them a few corresponding 

 remarks of my own. And here I must candidly avow, that, like Mr. Lees, 

 and some few other of your correspondents, 1 am no friend to the prac- 

 tice, whatever may be said in its defence, of scattering the seeds of exotic 

 plants among our wild woods and rocks, whether this be done " for the 

 purpose of astonishing the traveller, or hoaxing the scientific collector," or 

 (as I have, ere now, heard it strongly suspected) in order that the very 

 person who sowed or planted the species might afterwards find it again, 

 and take to himself the merit (such as it is) of being the discoverer of a new 

 and rare native plant. In this latter case the practice is worse than childish ; 

 it is truly a botanical fraud in the most offensive sense of the term, and a 

 pitiful falsifying of natural history. " The garden," says Mr. Lees, " the 

 plantation, and the pleasure-ground, are the proper places for the exhibition 

 of the effect of man's sportive and improving handj but let us leave the 

 woods and rocks to their native wildness and magnificence, as long, indeed, 

 as the advance of population allows us to retain any wilds at all." I may 

 add for myself, that the choicest double rose or show tulip would, in my 

 eyes, be at best but an impertinent plant, when met with introduced in our 

 British woods and mountains. Every botanist, every lover of Nature a» 

 she is, will participate in the feelings which Mr. Lees expresses in the fol- 

 lowing passage : — " Last week I passed through a wood covering one of 

 the transition limestone hills, near Ledbury, which was most profvisely orna- 

 mented by the beautiful Ticia sylvatica *, festooning the trees on all sides. 

 I was delighted in the extreme at this wild production of nature, so strik- 

 ingly lovely : but had it been in the power of any person to have informed 

 me that some ornamenter of wilds had been profusely sowing the plant in 

 the wood, my pleasure would have been much abated, nor could I have i» 

 that case concluded that a calcareous soil was the natural home of the 

 plants." By far the largest and most luxuriant specimens of il/fmulus 

 luteus I ever saw, so nmch so, indeed, that they made quite a splendid 

 and magnificent show, were growing an the boggy margin of a mountain 

 rill, not more than a mUe or two from Abergavenny. But as I did not for 

 a moment suppose that the plant was a native in that situation, or any 

 other than introduced by the hand of man, the sight, brilliant though it 

 was, did not afford me tliat pleasure which the discovery of some truly 

 indigenous, though far less conspicuous, botanical rarity would have done. 



Mr. Lees informs us that " .Saxifraga umbrosa may now be found on 

 some of the rocks at Malvern j " but he very properly assigns to it a garden 

 origin. Some years since, while touring in Yorkshire, I was at no small 

 pains in endeavouring to meet with this plant in a truly wild state, and 

 with this view visited the spot (Hesleton Gill) so minutely pointed out as 



* Why is not this beautiful climber (certainly one of the most charming 

 and elegant of our native plants) more frequently cultivated in the garden '^ 

 Is it on account of any peculiarity of the soil which it requires ? or the 

 difficulty of making it succeed in a state of cultivation? It generally pre- 

 fers a chalky or calcareous soil ; thus I have observed it in beautiful luxu- 

 riance in the neighbourhood of Clifton and Bristol, also in the vicinity of 

 Oxford, and lately near Dover. But it also occasionally occurs in a light 

 sandy soil, as, e. g., in Bentley Park, near Atherstone, in this county. I have 

 more than once sown the seeds in the garden, and seldom succeeded in 

 making them come up, or at least in raising them to perfection. What is 

 the cause of the failure ? 



