6 ALIEN FLORA OF BRITAIN 



bushy places in Southern Europe, long cultivated in this 

 country. It has numerous records as a garden escape 

 and a few as a naturalised plant. In its station on the 

 Steepholmes it was once considered native, but following 

 the learned author of the Flora of Somerset, who, after 

 a careful review of the facts, relegates it to the status 

 of an introduction, it will be safer to leave it for the 

 present in that position. 



Paeonia officinalis, L. The common Peony of gardens. 

 Occasionally noticed as an outcast or relic of garden 

 culture. It is a native of the woods of Southern 

 Europe. 



Kanunculus arvensis, L. A widely spread and often 

 plentiful weed of cultivation in Britain and the rest of 

 Europe. It probably originates from Central Asia. 

 Paulsen, in Vidensk. Medd. Kjohenh. (1901) 1902, 307, 

 records it in moist meadow land at Samarkand. 



Ranunculus falcatus, L. A cornfield weed of 

 Southern Europe which has been observed as a casual 

 in places where fowls have been fed on siftings of 

 foreign wheat. 



Ranunculus muricatus, L. A common weed in the 

 great corn-producing regions of the East, and so 

 characteristic of the numerous recorded colonies of 

 corn-sifting aliens in Britain. 



Ranunculus pensylvanicus, L. A native of North 

 America which has established itself along many of 

 the trade routes of the world. It has been observed 

 near Birkenhead Docks. 



