'COMPENDIUM OF THE CYBELE BRITANNICA. 7 



Mentha piperita, Hiuls. (p. 2GS.) — Usually considered a Chesliire na- 

 tive, and I have certainly found it four or live times within the county, 

 but always under circumstances of suspicion. Once in a little Willow- 

 bed just opposite a farmhouse ; again, in a hedge-ditch, where I learnt a 

 cottage and garden had once stood ; then by the side of a runnel, with a 

 farm-garden a little above it, etc. 



Galeopsis versicolor. Curt. (p. 275.) — On the question of this being " a 

 boreal variety of Tetrahit^'' note that it is perhaps the most characteristic 

 and widespread flower of central Cheshire. The potato-fields, which it 

 affects most, are often covered for roods with it. There is plenty of G. 

 Tetrahit also, and they often grow together; but I never saw the slightest 

 approach to intermediates between the two, and alive they are abundantly 

 and I should say " specifically" distinct. It is only in the herbarium 

 that likeness begins. 



Chenopodium fcifoUum, Sm. (p. 293.) — Add province 9, within a round 

 bracket for greater caution ; observed twice about rubbish and in a garden 

 in the environs of the city of Chester this year, but nothing like so well 

 established there as round London. After all, is this Chenopod a better 

 native than Merciirialis annua and Sinapis muralis, plants to me of 

 similar claims and environment ? Three years ago I raised from Kilburn 

 seeds a few plants of Cjicifolium at Tabley. It has even in this short 

 space spread as a weed in different places through a kitchen-garden of two 

 acres. Riimex sanguineus and Datura Stramouiam have also maintained 

 themselves there for many years in spite of hoeing and weeding. 



Atriplex erecta, Huds. (p. 296.) — If this includes or equals A. serrata, 

 Syme, province 9 (Cornfields about Knutsford) may be confidently added. 

 Mr. Syme named thus for me our prevalent iqu-ight field Atriplex. 



Rumex pratensis, M. and K. (p. 302.) — Add province 9. Several places 

 in Tabley Hill Lane and clsewliere. I found the plant in Mersey as soon 

 as I luul learnt it in Middlesex. I fancy it occurs nearly everywhere, if 

 known and looked for. 



HippopJiae rhamnoides, L. (p. 304.) — Is this ever or to what extent an 

 inland plant in England ? It forms an abundant and characteristic vege- 

 tation, lining and following the torrent-beds for miles in Switzerland, e.g. 

 near Culoz. 



EmpetrHiii nigrum, L. (p. 303.) — The comital distribution of this seems 

 worth tracing minutely. So large a slice of southern and central England 

 wants reliable record of this plant, that any occurrence of it in zone 1 

 may prove worth chronicling. I was surprised to find Empetrum in a 

 small marsh lying close into the town of Knutsford, on the south-east side, 

 in the lieart of the plain of Cheshire, and miles from anything that can 

 claim the name of a hill. Of course, on the high lands of Cheshire, where 

 Cheshire touches Yorkshire, running between Derbyshire and Lancashire, 

 Empetrum is common enough, I should gladly know whether Stafford 

 ancl Derby can show any records for Empetrum in their flat portions. Qy. 

 Is not its climatic distribution curiously analogous to Vaccinium Vilis-Idrea 

 to which I see zone 1 is denied ? The presence of Empetrum, and former 

 presence of Saxifraga Ilirculus at Knutsford, point to one fact ; they arc 

 both relics of a much older flora, when perhaps continuous morasses con- 

 nected the now highly cultivated plain of Cheshire with the hilly districts 

 of the north-cast. 



Mercuriulis annua, L. (p. 309.) — I should say a colonist. Still it is 



