A Visit to Tintern. By C. C. Babington, Esq., M.A., F.L.S. 



Thinking that the accounts of botanical excursions which occa- 

 sionally appear in the ' Phytologist,' are not amongst the least inte- 

 resting papers which appear in it, I have ventured to give a short 

 notice of a trip made in the early part of July last, to the neighbour- 

 hood of Tintern Abbey, in Monmouthshire, not on account of any in- 

 teresting results springing from it, but for the purpose of recommend- 

 ing that spot to those who may desire to spend two or three days in 

 botanizing amongst as beautiful scenery as can be found in the 

 southern parts of England. Indeed the position of Tintern is so cele- 

 brated, that it is only necessary to mention its name to excite, even 

 in those who have not had the good fortune to visit the banks of the 

 Wye, an idea of richness and beauty in its highest perfection : the 

 river winding amongst elevated precipitous and wooded hills ; the 

 exquisite ruins ; the views, embracing mountain-like summits in 

 Monmouthshire, and on the Welch border to the west, and eastward 

 the extensive plain of Gloucester, traversed by the Severn, whilst the 

 southern distance is chiefly occupied by the wide expanse of the 

 Bristol channel ; supply a diversity of beautiful objects that may 

 justly excite admiration. 



In this district I had the pleasure of spending the 9th, lOth, and 

 11th of July, in company with my friend, R, M. Lingwood, Esq., who 

 had come from his residence in Herefordshire to join me; and the 

 more I saw of it, the more I became convinced that these extensive 

 woods afford a rich field for the exploring botanist. My time was 

 unfortunately limited, or I should gladly have prolonged my visit. 

 We anived at Tintern in the middle of the day, and after taking up 

 our quarters at a nice little rural inn (the Rose and Crown), within a 

 few hundred yards of the Abbey, we walked down the western side of 

 the river for a considerable distance, and noticed Tragopogon porri- 

 folius in a far more decidedly wild condition than it has ever else- 

 where occurred to me. It was growing in considerable quantity at 

 some distance above the water, and far from any house, in a part of 

 the woods not easily accessible, except by following the banks of the 

 river. Near to the same spot we gathered a very curious monstrosity 

 of Cerastium, in which the flower has taken a rose-like form, the 

 sepals and petals exactly resembHng whorls of leaves in miniature, 

 and the capsule being formed of precisely similar leaves, attached to 

 each other by their edges, so as to present a series of deep furrows at 

 their junctions, and a prominent ridge at the mid-rib of each. The 



