Cxlviii FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



Proctor in 1784, and was appointed Professor of Modern History in 

 1801. He became Vicar of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford in 1782, but 

 relinquished that cure in 1789 for the living of Ufton Norcot in 

 Berkshire, In 18 14 he was made Dean of Bristol. 



When at Ufton, Beeke took considerable interest in Botany, and con- 

 tributed to Lyson's Magna Britannia records of the occurrence in Berk- 

 shire of Gentiana Pneumonanthe, Lycopodium Selago, and Lycopodium inun- 

 dation. In the Botanist's Guide we have a record by him of Euphorbia 

 Lathyris which he noticed at Ufton ' springing up in dry stony 

 thickets periodically, for a year or two after these have been cut 

 and till choked by briars/ &c. He sent a specimen to Sir James 

 Smith in 1801, which was figured in English Botany (No. 2255). 



In the herbarium of Sir James Smith, in the rooms of the Linnean 

 Society, is a letter which Beeke addressed to Sir James on the subject of 

 the Hop Trefoils which occurred about Ufton. The letter is as follows : 

 'Ufton, near Reading, Berkshire, June 25, 1800. — I do myself the 

 pleasure to send you four specimens of Trifolium, common enough all of 

 them, but hitherto I think somewhat misunderstood by English 

 botanists. All four were taken from a very dry flinty gravelly natural 

 pasture near mj^ house, which was inclosed from a Common a few 

 years ago, and which I have usually cut for hay every other year; and 

 consequently have had frequent opportunities of observing carefully 

 the various plants which grew upon it. All four grow indiscriminately, 

 and the luxuriance of No. 2 is by no means accidental, or owing to 

 superioi-ity of soil. I presume that these specimens include the 

 Trifolium procumhens and the T. fiUforme of your Flora Britannica and of 

 the last edition of Withering ; that No. i is T. agrarium, No. 3 T. pro- 

 curniens, and No. 4 T. fliforme of the second edition of Withering ; 

 I conjecture also that No. i is an English variety of the T. spadicea of 

 Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (3rd edition, j). 1087), that Nos. 2 and 3 are 

 two permanent varieties of the T. procumhens of the same work, and that 

 No. 4 is the true T. fiUforme of Linnaeus ; and I have no doubt in calling it 

 a perfectly distinct species, but I believe it may have been lately con- 

 founded with No. 3, that is with the smaller varieties of T. procumhens. 

 The characters which I have observed are constant in all situations, 

 namely. No. i. Leaflets sitting on a peduncle. Heads many-flowered, 

 closely tiled with broad scored standards, pale sulphur-coloured at 

 first, and afterwards spadiceous. Stalks non-naturally procumbent. 

 Legumes closely and regularly i-eflected. Nos. 2 and 3. Middle leaflet 

 only on a pedicle. Heads 10 to 30 flowers. Flowers sitting on a 

 straight stiff" peduncle ; standard not broad and obscurely if at all 

 scored. Legumes closely and regularly reflected. No. 4. All the 

 leaflets sitting. Heads 3 to 8-flowered on very slender flexile peduncles 

 and on separate pedicels. Legumes not closely or regularly reflected, 



