A BOTANICAL TOUR THROUGH SOUTH WALES, kc "205 



events is unnoticed in the county in Watson's very useful New Botanist's Guide 

 in England and Wales. 



Salvia verbenaca. In profusion by the canal side. 



Arabis hirsuta. In considerable abundance among the turf just beyond the 

 ferry. 



* Hesper is matronalis. In a stony cove between the ferry and the bridge, over 



the canal leading into the Burrows. Perhaps an out-cast;, as I met with 



but a single specimen. 

 Sisymbrium Sophia. Dispersed about the same stony cove. 

 Sinapis muralis. In sandy ground between the cove and the ferry. 

 Erodium cicutarium. With white flowers. Very abundant on the sandy 



ground near the canal. 



* Geranium pyrenaicum. Sparingly beneath a bushy bank bounding the cave, 



* Vicia lathyroides. With the above. 

 Oenothera biennis. On the shore beyond the pier. 



*Salix argentea, Smith. Plentiful on the Burrows, its silvery leaves giving 

 a beautiful relief to the eye, where it flourishes contrasted with the sandy 

 soil. Hooker and Bobber have now agreed to class it as a variety of 

 S.fusca. 

 Juncus acutus. I found this plant in profusion on the Burrows, forming large 

 hussocks dispersed about at intervals, and rather formidable from their 

 singularly sharp bracteas, which might give painful wounds. 

 Leaving the Burrows I now proceeded along the canal side that receives its 

 supply of water from and bounds the great morass of Cromlyn towards the sea. 

 For though the term bog is generally given to this marshy waste, it is not of that 

 light spongy description which occurs at the base of some of our English hills, 

 or on our commons, and on " light fantastic toe" may be skipped across. It is a 

 morass in the true meaning of the term, and extends about four miles, in a 

 direction parallel with the old road between Neath and Swansea. That it was 

 formerly a lake, as the name implies, I think there can be but little doubt, its 

 winding dimensions being well marked between a corresponding range of low 

 hills of the carboniferous sandstone. It must have then presented an aspect 

 of great beauty, winding inland for several miles, and perhaps connected by a 

 narrow outlet with the sea. Its present appearance is not favourable for investi- 

 gation. " None indeed," observes Dona van,* " but botanists would traverse it, 

 and of their number only those who are not to be accused of indifference to the 

 pursuits of this pleasing science. I wandered myself for hours over this bog, 

 wading at times through swamps knee deep, and at the hazard of suffocation in 



* Dona van's South Wales, 2 Vols., 8vo., 1805. 

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