Retrospective Criticism, 199 



]ts habitat in English Botany (see pi. 663.). The result, however, of my 

 examination was only an increased doubt as to the species being even in 

 this sequestered spot really of spontaneous growth,* It has been con- 

 fidently asserted that the species occurs wild in Ireland ; but erroneously, 

 I believe; unless, indeed, the discovery has been made of late years. The 

 " London prides," which grow unquestionably wild, and so profusely adorn 

 the rocks and mountains of Kerry (e. g. the Gap of Dunloe, and the rocks 

 near Killarney), are not iS'axifraga uuibrosa, but some allied species, be they 

 two {S. 6r'eum andhirsiita?) or more, with their perplexing host of endless 

 varieties. And I very much doubt whether any truly wild habitat for 

 iVaxifraga urabrosa be yet known either in Ireland, England, or even Scot- 

 land ; or, indeed, whether the plant be in fact originally indigenous. Ire- 

 land is the proper country of Robertsonitz?, by which name the London pride 

 family o? the genus /Saxifraga is now distinguished. In some parts of that 

 country they grow in astonishing profusion ; but among all the countless 

 varieties which are to be met with, I never could see, in a wild state, any 

 one that could be mistaken by a botanist for the true S. umbrosa. 



Valeriana rubra Mr. Lees considers, and with great probability, as another 

 *.' insinuating emigrator," of foreign origin, but now become naturalised. 

 Till lately I never met with it but in suspicious situations, as, e.g., on some 

 city wall, or " old ruin," &c. During the last summer, however, I observed 

 it apparently wild about the chalk-pits, by the road-side, near Dartford, in 

 Kent, and again on the cliffs by the sea-side at Ramsgate. 



As to the relative scarcity of j)lants, i. e. their rarity or abundance rela- 

 tively to different parts of the country, I will refer but to a few instances 

 out of an immense number that might be mentioned. Of those noticed by 

 Mr. Lees, Adoxa Moschatellina is abundant in this parish, growing on moist 

 banks, and the margins of brooks ,• Cotyledon Umbilicus I scarcely recollect 

 to have seen in this county, save on the ruins of Maxstoke Priory, and 

 there but sparingly ; while in some parts of Somersetshire and of the 

 county of Wicklow, as well as in many other places, it is exceedingly abund- 

 ant on walls and banks. It must be near thirty years ago that I once saw 

 gathered a single specimen, and that a weiik one, of Zycopodium 5elago, 

 and also of Osmunds regalis, in the bog below Coleshill Pool (see Purton's 

 Midland Floray where the above habitat is inserted on my authority). But 

 repeated search has never subsequently been rewarded by another specimen 

 of either plant in that situation, ^splenium lanceolatum, one of the most 

 elegant of our British ferns, I never saw alive, and could only with difficulty 

 obtain a dried specimen of it, till I visited Penzance. There it occurs pro- 

 fusely, springing out of every wall, and under every hedge-bank. 



True botanist-like, Mr. Lees seems to regret the ravages which are com- 

 mitted on our native flora by agricultural improvements, roadmaking, &c. 

 And it must be confessed that, owing to the march of civilisation, some of 

 our rarer plants, and, I might perhaps add, insects also, have wellnigh 

 become extirpated from various parts of the country. A pit in this parish 

 formerly abounded with Aspidium Thelypteris ; the entire surface was so 

 completely scummed over (if I may be allowed the expression) with a thick 

 blanket of the matted roots of the fern, interspersed with ^Sphagnum, Cd- 

 marum palustre, &c., that no water was visible; and, more properly speak- 

 ing, the spot should not be called a pit, but a shaking bog. Some years 

 ago the field was brought to the hammer, and purchased by an industrious 

 hard-working man, who, at no small expense of labour, drained the bog, 

 and converted it into profitable ground. Of course there was an end to 

 Aspidium jThel jpteris in that situation ; nor do I at this moment know any 

 other habitat where it is to be found. I could mention also the case of a 



* See Haworth's Saxifragedrum Enumcrdtio, p. 55,, and preface, p. xiv. 



o 4 



