SOME ADDITIONS TO OUR 

 NATIVE FLORA 



In our last paper we considered the question of the 

 disappearance of many of our rarer and more interest- 

 ing wild-flowers. We saw that many circumstances 

 had contributed to tliis unfortunate result. The 

 growth of towns ; improved methods of agriculture, 

 especially in the way of drainage ; the enclosing of 

 commons; the stubbing-up of hedgerows; the cultiva- 

 tion of downlands ; the rapacity of dealers ; the trans- 

 planting of showy species, like fritillary and Daphne 

 mezcreum^ into gardens and nurseries — all have had 

 their share in reducing the number of plants in our 

 native flora. While only a few species have, it is 

 true, become wholly extinct in these islands, many 

 have been greatly reduced in numbers, and now only 

 flourish in one or two localities, which in former years 

 were more generally distributed. And this, unfortu- 

 nately, is the case, not so much with our common 

 plants, although some, as the primrose and the hedge- 

 row ferns, are most grievously persecuted, as with 

 many of our choicer species, which seem to be be- 

 coming scarcer every year. 



Now while this is beyond question true, yet, on the 

 other hand, it must be borne in mind, especially in 

 these days of democratic progress, that a large number 



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