BOTANICAL STROLLS, 193 



Perhaps some practical botanist in that country could enlighten us on this 

 point? It appears to have a wide range, being an inhabitant of New Holland 

 The next plant on my tablets is Torilis nodosa, (Knotted Hedge Parsley;) 

 and then follow three Thistles, namely, Carduus mdans, (Musk Thistle,) a 

 large and handsome species, ''^said," as Hooker has it, "to smell powerfully 

 of musk in warm weather — most so in the evening, according to Lightfoot;'' 

 but your correspondent has never detected the scent; G. tenuiflorus, (Slender- 

 flowered Thistle,) plentiful near the sea on our coast; and G. arvensis, 

 (Creeping Plume Thistle.) Aira caryophjllea, that graceful little Grass, was 

 waving its pensile heads; and the elastic sward was overgrown with Thyvixis 



ScrpyUum. 



"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows." 



MlDSlMMFR XiGHT's DkEAM. 



.» Then came Dnuciis Carota, (Wild Carrot,) with its wide-spreading umbels 

 of white bloom, curiously marked in the centre with a solitary abortive 

 floret of a purple colour. Cytinghsmm officinale, (Common Hound's-tongue,) 

 now met with for the first time in my rambles; and much pleased was I 

 to find it, although it was getting cut of flower. The nuts are very peculiar; 

 but as untechnical language would fail to describe them, this vague observation 

 must suffice. The hedges were adorned with Malva Moschata, (Musk Mallow,) 

 one of the most beautiful of our wild flowei's, in colour rivaling the Roses 

 of the garden. On the verge of precipices overhanging the sea, Carlina 

 vulgaris, (Common Carline Thistle,) stood erect, with its spinous stem. This 

 plant rarely acquires a large stature in this neighbom-hood, the stem being 

 more frequently single-flowered than "many-flowered corymbose," as described. 

 I recently received from the north of England a specimen with several heads 

 of flowers, and altogether presenting a different appearance, so far as growth 

 is concerned, from the example here met with. And this is not the only 

 plant in which I have noticed a more luxuriant condition when growing 

 farther north, than in this mild and southern position. What is the cause 

 of this? Mula Gonyza, (Ploughman's Spikenard,) completed the list of our 

 findings about Werabury, 



At Noss, a village lying on the banks of a ci-eek running in from the 

 River Yealm, we discovered a colony of Ver,l)ascum virgatum, (Ijarge-flowered 

 Primrose-leaved Mullein,) upwards of thirty roots "sXl in a row" by the side 

 of a hedge, and, being in full bloom, a very fine show they presented. What 

 a catch, methought, they would have been for some rapacious collector, whose 

 eyes had never feasted on such a sight, and whose vasculum had never held 

 so rich a prize ! 



At Kewton, another village on the opposite shore of the creek, Fceniculum 

 vulgare, (Feimel,) was abundant, 



"There's fennel for j'ou." 

 Ophelia. 



Ligmtrum vulgare, (Privet,) fenced the cottages, and Sedum reflesum, (Crooked 

 VOL. n. 2 c 



