73 



NOTES OF A BOTANICAL STROLL FROM 



PLYMOUTH TO TAMERTON FOLIOTT, RETURNING 



THROUGH ST. BUDEAUX. 



On Wednesday, the 9th. of April, the morning being dry and fine, but 

 rather bleak, as an easterly wind blew, I was prompted to take a botanical 

 ramble— the first this season. I found the following plants in blo&som, 

 (the Daffodil, hereafter mentioned, was, it should be remarked, only sparingly 

 to be seen, its season having passed; and the orchis and hyacinth were just 

 unfolding their petals.) It must not be inferred that the various plants 

 observed grow only in the localities named. Whilst many of them are 

 restricted to one habitat; others are met with throughout the circuit described, 

 and others again only occasionally: — 



At Mutley, that beautiful creeping plant, Linaria cymhalaria was adorning 

 old walls and hedges, at the base of which flourished the less conspicuous 

 Cardamine hirsuta; the large pods of this small plant are worthy of obser- 

 vation. From the recesses of the hedges also peeped out a floAver or two of 

 Geranium Rohertianum. The Ranunculus ficaria too displayed its golden 

 enamelled stars. Humbly on the gi'ound abode Leontodon Taraxacum; and 

 •'everywhere' Bellis perennis. 



On Townsend Hill appeared Veronica hederacea, with its minute, but 

 delicately-pencilled blue corolla; Stellaria media; Thlaspi bursa-pastoris, with 

 its fairy money-purse; Senecio vulgaris; Cochlearia Danica, whitening the hedges; 

 Veronica polita — its small but bright blue petals cheerfully beaming; Cerastium 

 glom^ratum; Draba verna — ever a favourite, from its smallness and early 

 appearance. 



We are now on the Tavistock road; and between the summit of Townsend 

 Hill and the village of Knackersknowle, I found Stellaria Holostea spreading 

 its delicate petals in abundance; GlecJioma hederacea, hiding in himible nooks, 

 but whose rich purple flowers are worth searching for; Viola canina (I cannot 

 forget to call this plant" by its old name, notwithstanding the great botanists 

 of the day say we have been all along in error, and that this plant is the 

 V. sylvatica of continental authors;) Potentilla fragariastrum ; Veronica chamcedris, 

 one of our commonest, but certainly most handsome hedge flowers; Adoxa 

 moschateUina — a lovely little plant, one of the most graceful that our hedges 

 produce, and as plentiful this year as I have ever seen it; Sisymbrium 

 thalianum; Lychnis dioica; Viola odorata — this is indubitably the gem of the 

 season, from the delicious odour which it exhales, perfuming the air for some 

 distance around its dwelling; Mercurialis perennis; Lamium album, conspicuous 

 among the true nettles with which it is frequently associated; Primida vulgaris 

 — these I found excessively numerous, and of very large size; Fragaria vesca; 

 Arenaria trinervia — an unpretending but elegant little flower; Pulmonaria 

 officinalis — interesting from the peculiar maculation of its leaves^, which give them 



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