494 LILIACEAE 



Barghfield Bridge, Lousley ; also Miss Vansiftart i88i, in Brit. 

 Mas. Herb. Near Theale in the Kennet meadows, 

 f). Loddon. Maidenhead Thicket, Miss Lucas. In the meadows 

 about the Loddon and the St. Patrick's stream ; in the spring- 

 time the beautiful Fritillary or Snake's-head can be seen 

 growing in great abundance, (?. D. Leslie in Our River. About 

 Boulney and below Hemerton, Stanton. Arborfield meadows, 

 Tayley: 



The purple Fritillaries, which every Oxford man has gathered by handfuls 

 in the spongy meadows about Iffley Lock, with their dark-spotted petals 

 converging into a bell, and the nectaries at the base producing each a drop 

 of luscious honey. Grant Allen in Macmillari's Mag. xlvii. (1883) 33. 



I know what white, what purple, Fritillaries 

 The grassy harvest of the river fields 

 Above by Eynsham, down by Sandford, yields, 



And what sedged brooks are Thames' tributaries. 



Matthew Arnold^ Thyrsis. 



Some idea of the abundance of the Fritillary near Oxford may be gathered 

 from the fact given me by Mr. J. G. Baker, that one year Prof. Lawson sent 

 to Kew 3,000 specimens for use at the Science and Art Examinations of South 

 Kensington. 



The Fritillary appears to have been first noticed as a British plant by 

 Mr. Ashby in Blackstone's list of Harefield plants of 1737. It is somewhat 

 curious that it should not have been recorded from Oxford before the date of 

 1770-1780, when Dr. Lightfoot made a note of gathering it in Magdalen 

 College Meadow. This would rather point to its being an introduced species. 

 In favour of its being a native plant is the fact that it also occurs in the 

 meadows of the Thames and its tributaries far up the stream in very 

 sequestered country, as for instance in meadows by the Cole and Windrush. 

 This would rather lead us to think that the plant was native towards the 

 top of the watershed, and that by floods, &c., it has been conveyed to the 

 lower portion of the Thames valley. But bearing in mind that it occurs in 

 the valleys of the Thame and Kennet, which are separate branches of the 

 main river, I have called it a native plant. 



F. Meleagris is recorded for all the bordering counties except E. 

 Gloucestershire. 



TULIPA, Linn. Gen. n. 376 (Tournefort, Inst. t. 199). 



*T. SYLVESTRis, Linn. Sp. PI. 305 (1753). Wild Tulip. 



Comp. Cyb. Br. 581. Syme, E. B. ix. 190, t. 1520. Nyman, 723. Fl. Oxf. 306. 



Denizen. Plantations, parks, orchards. Rare. P. May-June. 



First recorded by Miss Hoskins in Baxt. Phaen. Bot. 2, 1834. 



2. Ock. Besilsleigh, 3/m //o.s^/«s, i.e. [Arelicof Speaker Lenthall's Garden, 

 where it is still plentiful, but rarely flowers.] Boar's Hill, Bolton King. 

 [Its claims to being indigenous are negatived by the fact that a double- 

 flowered vYa?'C2SSMS grew near.] Marcham, Walker. Near Kennington, 

 but only the remains of a cottage garden. 

 B. Pang. In Marlstone Park, Weaver. I saw it in flower in 1892. 



jilr. Lousley knew of this locality. Bucklebury. 

 4. Kennet. In a wood near Kintbury, Mrs. Batsun. 



Tulipa is recorded as a more or less naturaUzed plant in all the bordering 

 counties except E. Gloucestershire. 



