186 



watl-Jlower, the snoiedrcp, the Ifarcissus pale (Narcissus Hfiorus^, the star of Bethlehem, 

 the Periwinkle (Finco major and minor) the greater snap dragon /'antirrhinum mcjorj, 

 the ivy-leaved toad flax the evening primrose, the ftonci/suciJe.the sJonecrops (Sedum 

 album and S. dasyphyllum, and perhaps S. reflexumj, the house-kek, the craiiesbi!?* 

 [Geranium phoeum, and perhaps (3. co?«ni!rin«m), the leopard s bane, the cross-leaved bed- 

 straw, the St. John's wort, {Hypericum calycinum), the red valerain, the loijd sage, or 

 ctary, (SaJpia verber.aica], the motherwort, Jaeob's ladder or Greeit roJcrain, the damn's 

 violet, and some others. 



Several of our Herefordshire plants are wanderers from the kltcheB or herb garden, 

 as the horse radish, the horehouni, the hellebores [Helleborus Jcetidus and H. viridis), 

 the opium poppy, the ceiandine, the thorn-apple, the peppermint, and the carraway. 



Agriculture has also introduced plants which hare quickly naturalized them- 

 selves and spread over the country as the Dutch Clover, the Italian Rye-grass, 

 Saintfoin, the Field Cabbage, Cole seed, the field Melilot, the retch. Rye, and Brome gross, 

 the Dyer's wood, the Medick, and some others. 



All these naturalized plants have been designedly introduced for some special 

 virtues er properties of their own ; but there is yet a large class of other plants that 

 owe their English residence to accidental circumstances. How some of them came it 

 is impossible to say. The home weeds of the farmstead, the d.-ct-, the goose-foot tribe 

 {rhenfypodice), thisHes. ipormioood, mallows, 4c , etc. ; those cf the garden and cornfield 

 chiclnceed, groundsel, chamomiles, &c., &c., accompany civilisation, and may thus be 

 said to follow the footsteps of man wherever he goes. No doubt some of these, and 

 many others, have arrived by their seeds being accidentally mixed with some imported 

 seeds, or perhaps they may have been brought over in the packages of commerce, and 

 many of them have wandered widely through the country. It is probable that with 

 foreign seed came originally all the poppies (Papaver Rhceas, P. argemone, and P, 

 dubixtmj, the common fumitory, and the field Ranunculus {R. arvensis], and several 

 others ni'W recognised as British. More recently the Lamb's Lettuce, the Pennycress, 

 the Pepperwort, the Parsley, the Dog Mercury, the beaktd Parsley, the flax and clover 

 Dodders, fCuseuta epihnum and C. TrifoU't), have est.abli8hed themselves here, and are 

 admitted in italics to the British lists. The American, or rather Canadian water-weed, 

 fAnacharis A I sinastrum J vhieh spreads so rapidly through our streams — and nowhere 

 more plentifully than in Llangorse Lake — is supposed to have been brought over bodily 

 with American timber — although Mr. Babington who carefully propagated it in the 

 Botanical Gardens at Cambridge, and thus si)read it through that county, has been much 

 quizzed about its introduction. It is a curious fact that, according to Dr. Torrey, the 

 Italian plant Falisneria spiralis has made the same inroad on some American rivers 

 — the Hudson in particular— as the Anacharis has done In this country. 



The particular examples of wandering plants which I now wish to bring to your 

 notice, belong to this last class of foreigners — that is, to plants accidentally or mechani- 

 cally introduced. 



The Veroriica Buxbaumii, which has now become thoroughly naturalised in Eng- 

 land, is a comparatively recent introduction. It was first obsened in England in the 

 year 1826, and was doubtless brought over mixed with foreign corn, or clover seed. It 

 seems as hardy, and issues its seeds as freely as any of our common native veronicas, 

 and is a more elegant, beautiful plant than most of them. It was first observed in this 

 county, in the neighbourhood of Eoss, by Mr. Purchas, in 1850 ; and in 1852, at one of 

 our Club meetings, it was found growing very freely on the Croft Castle estate, 

 particularly in the field of that noble grove of sweet chestnut trees. Since that time it 



