reputed to be aboriginal in Britain. 387 



I, therefore, dug up some roots, to take home and plant in 

 the garden as representatives of the true native snowdrop of 

 Britain. But, alas ! 



" Ibi omnis 



Effusus labor." * 



On enquiry of a neighbouring farmer, I was informed that a 

 house had formerly stood close to the favoured spot; and, no 

 doubt, the snowdrops were but the surviving relics of cottage 

 horticulture. 



Among the plants usually recorded as British, which Pro- 

 fessor Henslow would be disposed to reject, or to suspect, as 

 not being truly native, the following, probably, ought to be 

 enumerated : — Anemone apennina, Adonis autumnalis, 

 *Scandix odorata, i/esperis matronalis, &enecio squalidus, 

 Z'nula Heienium, Delphinium Cons61ida, Geranium pyrenai- 

 cum, JVarcissus poeticus, Zeucojum aestivum, and Chrysan- 

 themum segetum. Seandix odorata and i'nula Heienium I 

 never met with but in suspicious situations : the latter near 

 houses or deserted gardens, and the former in the vicinity of 

 some monastic ruin. The monks were, probably, among the 

 greatest horticulturists of their day. $enecio squalidus having 

 escaped from the physic garden at Oxford, runs wild about 

 all the walls of the city and the colleges. In like manner, 

 from my garden, it has established itself on the banks and 

 walls of this village, and even on the roofs of some of my 

 neighbours' houses. Two summers ago, I found many spe- 

 cimens of /beris umbellata in a barley field near the village : 

 and sometimes I have seen Delphinium Consolida, and even 

 Campanula Speculum, in similar situations; the last unques- 

 tionably an exotic, and the other evidently not wild in this 

 neighbourhood. Chrysanthemum segetum, though now a 

 troublesome weed, is a plant which bears somewhat of a 

 foreign aspect, and may very likely have been originally 

 introduced among seed of corn from abroad. Perhaps even 

 Centaurea Cyanus and Agrostemma Githago may not be 

 excluded from Professor Henslow's class of doubtful natives. 

 All plants, indeed, that grow among corn, and in such situ- 

 ations only, are to be regarded with a suspicious eye. 



Certainly, our native flora needs purgation ; and it is hoped 

 that Professor Henslow's remarks will call the attention of 

 botanists to the subject : at the same time, it should be borne 

 in mind that many undoubted natives have become extremely 

 scarce, or entirely extinct, in consequence of enclosures, 



* " There all my labour vanished into air." 



Virgil, Trapjfs Trans. 



