282 THE NATURALIST. 



remarks, " I have been told that our Author himselfe planted that Peione 

 there, and afterwards seemed to finde it there by accident, and I do beleeve 

 it was so, because none before or since have ever seen or heard of it growing 

 wild since in any part of this kingdom." {Ger. Emac, 983.) In Merrett's 

 Pinax, before referred to, it is recorded as occurring " in Mr. Field's Well- 

 Close, in Darfield, Mr. Stonehouse," (p. 96) ; but in the Indiculus Plmitcd 

 Duhiariim, in B. Syn. iii, we are told, on the authority of the same gentle- 

 man, Mr. Stonehouse, that in this locality, *' though far from any house," 

 it was believed to have come first " out of a garden with some dung." 

 Mr. Pamplin, in Phyt. iv, 745, O.^S^., published the following note, "evidently 

 by a contemporary of Ray," found by him in a copy of the first edition of 

 Bay's Catalogus Plantarum Angliae, 1670: " Paeonia mas vera, found in 

 Stankham Wood, about halfe a mile from Winscham in Gloucestershire, by 

 Fran. Collins, who took up many of the roots and sold them to the 

 Apothecarys of London, and left some of the small roots to grow againe, 

 and sowed of the seeds he then gathered in the same place." It is somewhat 

 remarkable that this same locality is given by Merrett for P. officinalis, 

 and renders it probable that on one side or other a mistake in the species has 

 occurred ; but it certainly seems probable that one of the two plants was 

 really found in this locality. But the station on which Paeonia coraUina 

 claims its place as a British ]3lant, is that on the island of Steep Holmes, 

 in the river Severn, where it was discovered in the rocky clefts, growing 

 in great plenty, by Sir F. B. Wright, in 1808, [seePJiyt. i, 616, O.S.) In 

 B. G. ii, 523, we are told " that it is really indigenous there can be little 

 doubt, as well from the nature of the locality as from the information 

 communicated to Dr. Smith, who first acquainted us w4th its being found 

 there." This opinion was maintained by British botanists for some time, 

 but it now seems probable that the plant is an introduction. Mr. Flower, 

 in the Phytoloyist, as above quoted, adds, " I observed this plant growing 

 in the rocky clefts, in the Steep Holmes, in the summer of 1836, but it 

 was then nearly destroyed by destructive visitors." Mr. Edward Edwards, 

 however, in a letter dated September, 1833, states that ''the plant, though 

 now become extremely rare in the Steep Holmes station, is still there, 

 and may possibly remain till future seasons, from the great difficulty of 

 attaining the ];)eri'>encliciilar cliffs where it grows." {P^tyt- h '''13, O.S.) 

 Since this date we appear to have no further record of its occurrence in 

 this locality : does it still remain there ? This is a question which, it is 

 hoped, will not be long left unanswered. Mr. Flower also states that " a 



