72 K. A. PRYOR BOTANICAL WORK OF THE PAST SEASON. 



It is thouglit to have boeu first noticed in the neighbourhood 

 of Albury, in 1822, by the Late Mr. John Stuart Mill, the 

 celebrated logician and metaphysician, who was in early life 

 an enthusiastic field botanist and had devoted considerable at- 

 tention to the flora especially of Surrey. In 1838 it had aboady 

 become established on the banks of the Thames,* and soon extended 

 itself along those of its Middlesex tributaries. It has been noticed 

 for some years past (before 1869),f by the side of the Grand Junc- 

 tion Canal at Harefield ; and I do not doubt but that it was 

 conveyed thence to the locality in which we owe its detection 

 to the acuteness of Mr. Littleboy. It has been recorded for 

 Wilts, Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, and Bucks, | and we may now 

 add Hertfordshire to the list. It is said to be naturalized 

 also in Scotland, on the banks of the Clyde. § I do not know 

 anything of its continental distribution ; || but its application, 

 both internally and externally, has recently been suggested in 

 India, by Dr. Reid, as a sovereign cure for spider and snake bites 

 (' Report on Sanitary Measures in India in 1873-4,' lately issued 

 from the India Ofiice), and in default of further information, it 

 is perhaps not altogether uni'easonable to conclude that it may 

 have found its way also into some of our Asiatic dependencies. •[[ 

 The dispersive power of the seeds in Impatiens fulva is shared 

 by the whole genus to which it belongs, and by many of its more 

 immediate allies ; the brown-leaved oxalis, 0. corniculata ruhra, so 

 common in gardens, will afi^ord a familiar instance, and the separa- 

 tion of the carpels from the axis in our native geraniums, belonging 

 to the same natural family, will furnish a second example of a 

 somewhat similar kind. There is another species of tbe same genus, 

 Impatiens parviflora, DC, a native of Russia, which has recently 

 made its appearance in several parts of the country, and is likely 

 to become an established weed. It has been noticed in our county, 

 at Essendon, by Mr. R. T. Andrews, of Hertford. It is not im- 

 probable, indeed, in the opinion of many botanists, that /. Koli- 

 me-tangere, L., although so long reckoned among our indigenous 

 plants, has no more real claim to be held a genuine native than 

 its American congener ; if anywhere, ' ' it must be so very locally ; 

 say in North Wales and Westmoreland."** 



Among other more or less naturalized species, Poterium muri- 

 catum, Spach, which is not uncommon amongst sown sainfoin, has 



often be found adhering to lock <^ates. It was first noticed by Mr. J. C. Sowerby 

 in the Commercial Docks in 1824, and has been found, I Ibelieve, even in the 

 supply pipes of the London water companies. I do not know whether we have 

 it in Herts. 



* Irvine, Lond. Flora, p. 171. t Fl- Middlesex, p. 71. 



X Watson, Top. Bot. i. p. 112. § Student's Flora, p. 80. 



II De Candolle (Geog. Bot.) docs not give it as occurring on the Conti- 

 nent. 



H It Rcoms more probable that it was proposed to make use of the imported 

 plant. 



** Watson, Top. Bot. ii. p. 608. 



