CASUAL PLANTS IN MIDDLESEX 127 



The next area we come to for which Pyrola has been recorded 

 is still in N. Lines. (54), between Lincoln and Boston. The 

 Kirkby moor and Koughton bed of Plateau Gravel and Coningsby 

 bed of Old River Gravel are still its home. There I have proof 

 that the last of the self-sown prehistoric pinesque scrub was not 

 finally uprooted and destroyed till past the middle of last century. 

 The only other recorded spot for this species is in S. Lines. (53) 

 in a wood on the same Old River Gravel that the ancient pinesques 

 frequented at Coningsby. There is no peat in this locality, as 

 there is in all the others, to preserve for us proof that pinesques 

 formerly existed in this spot ; but considering what is known of 

 the other districts, it is surely safe to say that they were once 

 there too. I can prove their presence in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood on the same Old River Gravel. 



True ecology will not rest there ; it will explain much lying in 

 my notes which is as yet hidden from the wisest. There are 

 index species, varieties, and even hybrids ; and we do not yet 

 know to what they point. For instance, the Rev. H. J. Riddels- 

 dell borrowed the arranged County Herbarium series of Ajmmi 

 nodifloruvi and A. inundatum, and their forms. The first is wide- 

 spread and common, growing in all kinds of waters ; the second, 

 thinly but widely scattered, and found in neutral or acid waters. 

 A form found with us was returned named Moorei Riddelsdell, 

 which the late Canon Fowler once suggested in conversation 

 was nothing but a hybrid between them, on account of its mixed 

 characteristics. The curious thing is that all the specimens re- 

 turned named Moorei {i.e., approximately inundatumx nodifloruvi) 

 were taken in the known inundatuvi conditions — distinctly acid 

 waters ; in the Trent valley too, with the exception of a specimen 

 I have heard of, collected by Mr. G. C. Druce at James Deeping 

 parish on the very borders of this county. I have no notes of any 

 insects visiting the flowers of these Apiums, neither has Mr. Scott- 

 Elliot, which seems extraordinary — not even a Thysanopteron. 



CASUAL PLANTS IN MIDDLESEX. 



By J. E. Cooper. 



The following list, which is far from being exhaustive, may 

 serve to show the great variety of casual and alien plants to be 

 found on waste ground and building land round the Metropolis. 

 All the plants mentioned were collected by the writer. The list 

 excludes (1) plants which are apparently native and (2) those 

 which are presumably garden escapes. 



The following abbreviations are used : — 

 C. E. = Crouch End. H. M. = Hackney Marshes. 



E. F. = East Finchley. M. Hill = Muswell Hill. 

 F. = Finchley. Y. = Yiewsley. 



For the identification of several plants the writer is indebted 

 to the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew\ He also desires to 



