215 



At Llanvihangel Pentre I noticed in a field the * Colchicum atitumnale in 

 fruit in great profusion ; and on my remarking it to an individual residing near, 

 he informed me that, in the spring of the present year, seven cows were poisoned 

 in that meadow by feeding upon the plant, and that he himself saw them lying 

 dead in the field. He stated that they belonged to a farmer of the name of 

 Watkins, who lived in the parish, and was imprudent enough to turn them into 

 this meadow in the early spring, after & winter's feeding on hay. Greedy, in con- 

 sequence, after green food, they devoured the Colchicum, and were all found 

 dead the next morning ! This insidious plant, whose purple flowers in the au- 

 tumn are its only recommendation, should be destroyed without mercy by the far- 

 mer wherever it presents itself. I do not think, however, unless under the cir- 

 cumstances stated, that cattle would, in general, prefer to eat it ; and as its leaves 

 and fruit only appear in the spring and early summer, it is innoxious when it 

 adorns, as it does profusely in Worcestershire, the short green aftermath. 



As I passed through the valley between the Skirrid Vawr and Sugar Loaf 

 Hills, I noticed the * Sanguisorba officinalis in considerable abundance, in the 

 meadows on both sides of the road. 



On alighting at Abergavenny, though evening was rapidly approaching, I 

 hastened on with the intention of ascending the Sugar Loaf forthwith, but getting 

 almost inextricably involved in the dense mass of wood that covers the buttresses 

 of the mountain, I found it impossible to get farther than the Derry ; add to 

 which, as I emerged from a thicket into a water-course, and caught the purple 

 peak of the hill still far distant, it became involved in cloud, and a copious shower 

 soaking the long grass and pouring from the bushes, was an, addendum to the 

 excursion not calculated upon or provided for. I therefore leaped one of the stony 

 water-courses, and made my best way to a practicable path. In my passage I 

 encountered some curiously contorted dwarf Beech trees (Fagus sylvatica), 

 though planted I have no doubt ; for though, according to Mr. Watson's Geogra- 

 phical Distribution of British Plants, it would appear that the Beech held rank 

 in all our floras, I have never yet met with it in the midland counties or South 

 Wales in a situation where its claims as a truly indigenous species could be con- 

 sidered indisputable. 



The late Mr. Purton, of Alcester, who was justly honoured by Sir J. E. Smith 

 with the appellation of " accurate," has recorded in his Midland Flora the occur- 

 rence of Melampyrum sylvaticum in " the woods at the foot of the Sugar Loaf, 

 in great plenty."* After an attentive examination of the woods " at the foot of 

 the Sugar Loaf," I am, however, fully persuaded that the plant there occurring " in 

 great plenty" is not the real M. sylvatica, but a variety of M. pratense, with en- 

 tire floral leaves, the fi . of Dr. Hooker's British Flora, and the M. montanum of 



* Purton's Midland Flora, vol. ii., p. 751. 



