39 



Langridge lane and woods, "VVick Eocks, Combehay, and the 

 woods at Midford Castle. For aquatic plants, the canal and 

 river, the ponds at Prior Park and Midford Castle, the Horse 

 and Jockey ponds, near South Wraxall ; and wet places on 

 Lansdown, Bannerdown, and Solsbury Hill. 



By far the two most interesting plants in the Bath Flora are the 

 Etiphorbia pilosa and the Lysimachia tliyrsiflm-a already alluded to. 

 Next to these, perhaps, is the Ornitliogalum pyrenaicxim, which, 

 though very rare in most parts of England and confined to a few 

 counties, is met with in great abundance in the woods about 

 Bath, appearing in some places even as a roadside weed, or 

 coming up in the open lands adjoining. This plant is further 

 worthy of notice, from the circumstance of its being gathered for 

 the table and eaten ; for which purpose the immature flowering 

 spikes are largely collected by the poor in spring, and tied up in 

 small bundles, and brought to market, where they are exposed 

 for sale under the name of French asparagus, which they much 

 resemble in appearance, and a little in flavour, though very 

 inferior. How long this custom has prevailed I am not aware 

 but it is probably of long standing, as it is mentioned in 

 Collinson's History of Somerset, published now nearly eighty 

 years since. CoUinson says that " it is not very wholesome, and 

 if eaten plentifully, it occasions nausea and oppression of the 

 breath." 



Though it is not necessary to dwell generally upon the 

 commoner plants about Bath, yet it will be right to say a few words 

 respecting certain species ordinarily accounted as Aveeds, from 

 the circumstance of these despised plants being sometimes passed 

 over even by professed botanists. Nor are they entirely without 

 interest. We give the name of weeds to those plants, which, from 

 their numbers and ready gro^iih, are so troublesome in our 

 gardens and fields, and which we mercilessly pull up whenever 

 they come in our way. They are the spontaneous productions of 

 the soil which spring up whether we will or no. But Ave may 



