214 8H0HT NOTES. 



method of cultivating plants ; which no doubt will turn out to he of 

 great importance to the physiology of plants." 



Symphttum orient.\le, Z., in Middlksex. — This conspicuous 

 alien is growing in some quantity on the embankment of the South- 

 western Railway at Isleworth. It is at once distinguishable 

 from either of the British species of Symphytum by the calyx, which 

 is divided hardly more than a quarter of the way down, and by the 

 filaments, which are fully equal to the anthers in length. The pure 

 white flowers, which are produced in considerable abundance, would 

 render it quite worthy of a place in the spring garden, were it not for 

 the probability of its degenerating into a weed, from the rapidity of 

 root-increase. I could obtain no clue to its introduction in the 

 present locality, where I first observed it about the middle of April last ; 

 its existence had, however, been known to the railway officials for the 

 past five years, and it appeared to be steadily spreading. I do not 

 altogether think that it had been derived from any neighbouring 

 garden, but rather that owing to some accident it had made its way 

 through the crevices of the station platform, under which a few of the 

 plants were still growing. Symphytum orientale is included by 

 Babington in his Manual among those species which "have been 

 noticed in England, but are not natives," but I am not aware that 

 any further particulars as to its occurrence have been anywhere given 

 (cf. Compendium Cyb Brit., p. 548). The "Student's Flora" 

 localises it on "shrubberies only." There is another Sym2)hytum 

 with purple flowers which is not very uncommon in old-fashioned 

 gardens, and occurs now and then as an escape in their neighbourhood. 

 This has more than once been recorded in our lists as the patens of 

 Sibthorp, but seems to be always of exotic orgin. In Hertfordshire, 

 at all events, the blue or pui-ple-flowered Symphytum that occurs 

 occasionally in waste places is altogether indistinguishable from S. 

 asperrimum, Sims. The relative length of the anthers and filaments, 

 when examined in a fully developed state, and the large corollas 

 separate it widely from any form of S. offirinale. S. aaperrimuvt has 

 often been recommended for cultivation, and has long been known as 

 an established alien in the vicinity of Bath. Very similar specimens 

 from tiie same neighbourhood have, however, been named patens by a 

 high authority, and Sibthorp himself may possibly have intended some- 

 thing of the same kind. — R. A. Prtok, 



BoT.\NY OF WoRCESTERSHiUE. — At a recent meeting of the "Wor- 

 cestershire Naturalists' Field Club Mr. E. Lees called attention to the 

 researches that had been lately made in the botany of Worcestershire 

 by several of their members, particularly by the Rev. J. H. Thompson 

 and Dr. Eraser. The former observer had found Brassica Cheiranthus 

 in considerable plenty on a sandy common near Kidderminster, and 

 also Rumcx maritimus in great abundance at a neighbouring pond. 

 Both botanists had also noticed hundreds of the littoral plant Erodiiim 

 maritimum in Habberley Valley and adjacent lanes ; while the 

 secretary, Mr. Haywood, had brought to the meeting Doronicum. 

 Pardalianches, which he had gathered near the old bridge at Powick ; 

 he had also found some quantity of Ornithogahim nutans in an orchard 



