165 



weed, Anacharis ahinastrum. This plant fii-st detected in this country about 

 twenty years since, is now generally destributed and but too well known 

 throughout the kingdom. 



Here too I found a plant that has not been liithei-to recorded as growing 

 in this county, the flat-stalked pondweed, Potamogeton compressus. From its 

 grass-like appearance in the water it has probably been hitherto overlooked, 

 and may possibly be found in other parts of the county. Near it another pond- 

 weed was growing, Potamoyeton pectinatus ; and on the canal banks the tufted 

 and hairy carex, Carex vulgaris, and C hirta. 



The hop, Humulus Lupulus, is very common in this district, and is 



generally considered an escape from cultivation ; but the late Dr. Bromfield has 



in the " Phytologist " and in his "Flora of Hampshire," endeavoured to prove, 



and with some semblance to reason, that the hop is indigenous to this country, 



notwithstanding what may be inferred from the following lines, that 



"Turkey, carp, hops, pickerel, and beer, 

 Came into England all in one year." 



Noting plants by the way, I continued my route through Ocle Ktohard and 

 the Cowarnes to Stoke Lacey. In the meadows between the latter place and 

 Bromyard I observed the meadow orchis. Orchis morio, in many shades of colour, 

 from pure white to lilac and purple. Miiosotis ccvspitosa; Genista tinctoria ; 

 the common salad burnet, Pnterium sanpuisffrha, the rest-harrow, Ononis 

 ai'vensis ; the milkwort, Polygala vulgaris, in pink, white, and blue ; and many 

 other plants. 



The "shades of evening" ushered me into the town of Bromyard, and 

 having arranged my plans for the morrow's wanderings, I quietly awaited its 

 appearance — and with it came disappointment, in the "lightning's vivid flash," 

 loud peals of thunder, and torrents of rain, a sad contrast with the beautiful 

 glowing sunset of the previous evening. The dehiy thixs occasioned necessarily 

 altered my arrangements ; however, I did a fair amount of botany in the streets 

 of Bromyard, in the intervals between the storms, and before the unpropitious 

 aspect of the weather had completely passed off I ventured on to Bromyard 

 Downs, and gathered some carices, the Carex prcecox, C. panicea and C jlava, 

 and a few fronds of the spleenwort, Asplenium Trichomanes. I had reached 

 the confines of the parish of Tedstone Delamere, whose charming dingles and 

 sequestered glades offer such an attractive field to Botanical research, when I 

 found that the heavy rains had so completely saturated the district, that I 

 was compelled, most reluctantly, to return vifl, Whitbourne, without investi- 

 gating them. I found here the great horsetail, Equisetum Telmateia, very fine 

 and plentiful, the marsh horsetail, Equisetum Pahistre, and in a wood I passed 

 through I saw again the narrow-leaved woodrush, Luzula Forsteri, the broad- 

 leaved woodrush, Luzula pilosa, and another supposed to be a variety of the 

 latter, called the Luzula Bmrcri, Borrer's woodrush, which was first pointed 

 out by Dr. Bromfield in the Isle of Wight. With reference to this last plant 



