263 



Orobanche minor. — On the top of an old garden wall on the road to the 

 little Skirrid, overgrown with Ivy, and in a very rubbishy state. 



* Mentha viridis. — Plentiful in a watery ditch below the bridge and not far 

 from the Usk. 



Rosa arvensis. — In great beauty and abundance, adorning the thickets at the 

 foot of the Derry, and apparently the most common Rose in this vicinity. 



* Salix rosmarinifolia. — In a marsh overspread with various willows, and 

 overgrown with brambles, reeds, &c, forming a favourite angling haunt for some 

 distance along the Usk, below the castle. 



* S. amygdalina — Almond-leaved Willow. In the same shady, secluded spot. 

 Tussilago farfara. — Most abundant on the shores of the Usk. 



In proceeding from Abergavenny to Newport, I could not help remarking the 

 greater exuberance of the Common Elder ( Sambucus nigra J, filling the hedges 

 to an extent I never before noticed in any other county than Monmouthshh-e, and 

 loading the air with its peculiar scent, while its snowy cymes whitened the country 

 far and wide. It is remarkable, however, that in this country it is never found 

 far removed from the works or habitation of man, and never within woods, unless, 

 perhaps, on the site of some abandoned cottage. This suggests the idea of its 

 not being really indigenous, but introduced into Britain at an early period, and 

 very likely by the Romans, who had no less than five principal stations in Mon- 

 mouthshire, one of which, Caerleon, was the metropolis of the province termed 

 Britannia Secunda ; and here the Roman power and jurisdiction was established for 

 more than three centuries.* Dr. Walker thought the Elder was not indigenous to 

 Scotland, justly observing that there existed no old trees, and the only veteran of 

 any bulk that I ever met with was in the vale of Neath, near the Porth-yr-ogof, or 

 Mellte cavern, which I shall have occasion to mention hereafter. Loudon remarks 

 that " it is frequent in Greece, and was formerly much employed in medicine there, 

 as the space it occupies in the works of Theophrastus bears ample testimony."-]- 

 We can scarcely doubt, therefore, that the fame of its virtues preceded it, and 

 ultimately led to its transportation from Greece, through Italy, to England, where 

 hot " Elder wine" is still considered to be no bad renovator on a cold frosty night, 

 if, indeed, the cauterizing potion can make good its passage to the interior — but 

 it requires some effort to do it. The Elder was probably indigenous to Italy, if 

 the account of Pliny is to be depended upon, who says " The shepherds are tho- 

 roughly persuaded that the Elder tree growing in a by-place out of the way, and 

 where the crowing of Cocks from any town cannot be heard, makes more shrill 

 pipes and louder trumpets than any other." £ Phillips, in his Companion for the 

 Orchard, gravely tells us that " Boerhaave, the celebrated physician of Leyden, 



* Evans' and Britton's Monmouthshire. 



f Loudon's Arboretum and Fruticetum Britannicum, p. 1029. 



X Pliny's Natural History, translated by Phil. Holland, M.D. 



