Brai'TEN ON BUCKINGHAMSHIRE RARITIES. 105 



the former is truly a noble plant. Hijdrocharls Morsus-rancB fringed the 

 edges of all the ponds here. In the flat pasture-land, Trifolium fragifemm 

 was abundant, with Helosciadium repens ; my selection of specimens of the 

 former excited great curiosity among the rustic population, as represented 

 by two herd-boys, and procured for me the complimentary (?) epithet of 

 " the clover-man." At one end of this field is the marshy ground where 

 so many of my spring rarities were collected. I then crossed the ferry 

 at Bourne End, and, on my arrival in Buckinghamshire, noticed Nastunlum 

 sylvestre and Chelidoniam majiis. 



Gentiana Amarella, or, more properly, G. germanica, grows in great 

 luxuriance on a small common called Four Ashes, Hughenden, with G. 

 campestris, which is the rarer plant in this neighbourhood. In returning 

 across the fields to Wycombe, Verbascum Thapsus was abundant in a field 

 of saintfoin, with two specimens of what I took to be V. virgatum. Ecliium 

 vulgare occurs very sparingly near Hughenden ; and Medicago sativa is 

 plentiful by the side of a field near Bledlow Ridge. This must conclude 

 my list of Buckinghamshire rarities for the present year. 



Since the above was written, Mr. J. C. Melville has rather forestalled 

 me by giving his experiences of Marlow and Bisham rarities. I am very 

 glad that another botanist has found it worth while to record some of the 

 plants of this neighbourhood, and has confirmed my favourable opinion of 

 its productiveness. With one or two exceptions, however, the plants 

 noticed by Mr. Melville are different from those observed by myself; s6 

 that I shall make no apology for the few repetitions which may appear 

 above. I may inform him that I have never seen Hypericum elodes, nor 

 Epipactis palitstris, on the common at Lane End, though I have frequently 

 visited this locality. The floating Sparganium, near the Marlow Road 

 railway bridge, is, I believe S. natans, not S. simplex. Is Mr. Melville 

 quite sure that the Pyrola of the Parmoor wood is anything but P. minor ? 

 I ask this question because P. media has so often been reported from 

 localities which have been found to produce only P. minor, and this error 

 has, as I have before had occasion to remark, -!< occurred quite recently in 

 this neighbourhood. I trust that the peculiar interest which I take in 

 Buckinghamshire botany will plead my excuse for these observations ; and 

 that offence will not be taken where none is intended. 



♦ Vide p. 139. 



