THOMAS CLARK AND SOMERSET PLANTS. 313 



A specimen of the last named only occurs in Clark's herbarium 

 from " the foot of Brean Down, 1835." The three plants want 

 investigating on the Bristol Channel. 



Dicmthus dcltoides. " On the lias near Street, J. C. Collins 

 MSS." 



Potentilla veriia. " Frequent round Bridgwater, J. C. Collins 

 MSS." Crooks Peak on Mendip, where I found it this spring for 

 the first time, appears to be the nearest spot to Bridgwater. — P. 

 argentea. " Frequent round Bridgwater, J. C. Collins MSS. Pos- 

 sibly a mistake, for this is not a plant likely to be lost if once well 

 established. 



Myrrhis odorata. " Hedges by the roadside between West 

 Street, Bridgwater, and Enmore. J. Poole MSS." The Kev. J. 

 Poole's notes were communicated by Mr. Collins, and I found 

 " Enmore Road " given as the locality for this plant in Collins' 

 MS. notes mentioned above. It may have got exterminated 

 through building operations, but possibly Anthriscus vulgaris, which 

 grows there, was mistaken for it. 



Acorns Calamits. "Plentifully in King's Sedgemoor. J. C. 

 Collins MSS." Withering also gives " Marshes near Glastonbury," 

 but the plant is probably lost through the drainage of the Somer- 

 setshire moors. 



Juncus maritimus. "Mouth of Parrett, in ditches; not un- 

 frequent near the Channel. J. Collins MSS." After many years' 

 searching this plant was found by Mr. White last year in two 

 places in Berrow Marsh. 



Elyimis arenarius. " Burnham, Berrow and Steart. J. C. 

 Collins MSS." This grass is now very rare on the coast, and it has 

 probably been seen by very few people. 



Without doubt there are many blanks and queries in Tojjo- 

 grapJiical Botany, ed. ii., for both Somerset North and South, which 

 Clark might have filled up had he been living, and we must hope 

 that some of these old and forgotten botanists will be given their 

 due when a new edition appears. 



Thomas Clark was not only a painstaking botanist but a most 

 accurate one, and some of the labels attached to his plants show 

 how scrupulously careful he was to describe their exact habitats. 



His cousin John Aubrey Clark, of Street (b. 24 July, 1826; 

 d. 4 Aug. 1890), was also a botauist and a man of great originality, 

 who wrote some very creditable verses and essays. A surveyor by 

 profession, he devoted much of his spare time to the study of 

 Fungology, and he has left behind some valuable work, including 

 a number of careful drawings of Fungi, with seasons, habitats, 

 descriptions, &c. Two books of these drawings are now in the 

 Library at Kew. He was in correspondence with Cooke, Berkeley, 

 W. G. Smith, and other authorities of the time. 



