434 ASARACEAE 



Native. Ericetal. Dry fields, heaths, parks, waysides, locally abundant. 

 Chiefly confined to light sandy or gravelly soils. P. March-August. 

 First record. R. aceiosella, Mavor's Agr. Berks, 1809. 



Var. ANGUSTiFOLiA, Kocli, Syn. Fl. Germ. 616 (1837), appears to l:e 

 a starved form ; it has been seen on Mortimer and other dry heathy 

 places. The leaves are linear, or narrow lanceolate with one or both 

 auricles absent. 



Although the flowers are so inconspicuous, yet from the plant 

 occurring in countless numbers, a very beautiful eifect is sometimes 

 produced by it. I once saw a sheet of this plant in the portion of 

 Windsor Park near Virginia Water which, when lighted up by the 

 setting sun, shone with a glorious orange-red tint, quite unlike that 

 of any other British plant. In the spring of 1896 a very fine effect 

 was caused by these flowers in arable fields near Tidmarsh. 



R. Aceiosella occurs plentifully in all the bordering counties. 



ASAKACEAE, Link, Enum. ii. i (1822). 

 Aristolochiaceae, Blume, Enum. PI. Javae, i. 81 (1830). 



AsARUM EDROPAEUM, Linn. Sp. PI. 442 (1753). Asarabacca. 



A. v^llgare, Park. 266. 

 Top. Bot. 362. Syme, E. B. viii. 90, t. 1249. Nyman, 64^- F^- Oxf. 260. 

 Error ? Woods. Very rare, if indeed it occurs in the county. P. May. 

 First record. Mountainous woods, rare. Said to have been found by the 

 roadside between Henley and Maidenhead, Dr. Abbot in E. B. n. 1083, 1802. 



This is repeated in the Bot. Guide in 1805. In Lymn's Magna Brit. 1806, it 

 is said to grow in the beech woods between Henley and Maidenhead. My 

 search in the beech woods on the Berkshire side of the Thames has been 

 unsuccessful. Mr. Stanton, who lives in the vicinity, has also been unable 

 to find it. Dr. Abbot's locality was almost certainly in Bucks, and one of 

 the two places where it is said to have been found in that county (see Journ. 

 Bot. (1870) 85) appears to be a wooded chalk-hill in which Buxiis, Primus 

 Lanro-C'srasus, P. hisitanica, and other ornamental shrubs have been planted. 



Asarum is reported for Bucks and Wilts (where it may be native) ; in its 

 Oxfordshire locality, where it was only a relic of cultivation, it has been long 

 extinct. 



■"^Aristolochia Clematitis, Linn. Sp. PI. 962 (1753). Birthwort. 



Corap. Cyb. Br. c^^^j. Syme, E. B. viii. 91, t 1250. Nyman, 645. Fl. Oxf. 260. 

 Alien. Waste places. Hedges. Bare, if indeed it occurs in the county. 

 Shrub. June-September. 



The following are the recorded statements respecting its occurrence in 

 Berkshire, but I am unable to confirm them. 



Aristolochia longa. Long Birthwort beyond Bedding, [How's] Phyt. Brit. 

 1650. In the copy of this work in the Bodleian Library, which belonged to 

 E. Ashmole, the locahty is given ' In Mr. Vachells house in Reading, B. A. 

 and J. TF.' In Coles' Adam in FAen of 1657 the record from How's Phytologia 

 is repeated. 



Aristolochia longa. Long Birthwort near Redding, sed in loco ubi quondam, 

 fuit Monasterium, Mr. Brown, MerretVs Pinax, 10, 1666. In a hedge near 

 Windsor, ilfr. Gotobed in Bot. Giiide, 1805. 



A. Clematitis occurs at Godstow in Oxfordshire close to the Berkshire 

 boundary, and is recorded for Hampshire. 



