PHYTOLOGY. 



ON THE NATURALIZATION OF PLANTS. 

 By Prof. C. C. BABINGTON, M.A., F.R.S. 



A PERUSAL of the Editor's interesting paper, entitled " List 

 of casuals and introduced plants " (page 243), has again 

 turned my attention to the naturalization of so many plants in- 

 cluded in our Flora. It seems to me that we usually make rather 

 too much of it, and are inclined to include many plants having a 

 real claim to be considered as natives, or at least thoroughly 

 naturalized. We consider a man as a real Englishman or Scotch- 

 man if his ancestors have been for a few generations established 

 here as their home. We are all in fact naturalized although we call 

 ourselves natives. Similarly of the plants. There is probably not 

 one of them which did not come at some early period from some 

 other country : some at a very early date (far sooner than we did), 

 and others at various later times. I consider all plants which hold 

 their own, and increase by seed, to have a fair claim to be enumer- 

 ated in our lists. They are truly naturalized — e.g., Veronica Bux- 

 baumii which was introduced as a new garden annual early in the 

 present century, and is now universally distributed. Such a plant 

 as Anacharis Alsinastrum presents much difficulty. It is also 

 universally distributed, but it is not known ever to have produced 

 seeds in Europe ; or as I am informed in America to the east of 

 the Alegany Mountains (Asa Gray). Lycium barbarum again pre- 

 sents some difficulty. As a rule it does not increase by seed 

 (which is probably rarely perfected), but near Cromer in Norfolk 

 it does seed abundantly, and is being sown about the country by 

 the agency probably of birds. According to my rule, therefore, it 

 is a naturalized plant there ; although usually only a casual, or, as 

 Hooker calls it, a " cottage ornament." I do not allow " spread- 

 ing by stolons " as conferring any claim to admission as a natura- 



