365 



as well as the doubts on the subject mentioned by Dr. Bell Salter and 

 others, its erasure from the British Flora by Mr. Babington, and its 

 subsequent restoration on the examination of authentic specimens 

 gathered by myself, by Mr. Ball,* I imagine botanists in general do 

 not easily recognize it. I have therefore felt anxious to elucidate, if 

 possible, the specific distinctions between the three related species of 

 CEnanthe designated above, so that no further doubt may exist on the 

 subject. I was unable to accomplish this last year, as my old locality 

 at Powick was unproductive, and during a peregrination of three 

 months in North Wales, not a specimen of the genus fell under my 

 review, save QL. fistulosa and QE, crocata. In the cycle of events, 

 however, " Saturnian times return ;" and the present season has pro- 

 duced me an abundant harvest, not only of CE. pimpinelloides, but of 

 QE. peucedanifolia and Lachenalii also, so that having had a previous 

 acquaintance with pimpinelloides of fourteen or fifteen years, I can 

 now speak with some confidence. 



First on the habitats of the three CEnanthes. It is curious that QE. 

 pimpinelloides is stated by Smith and Hooker, as well as other bota- 

 nical writers, to grow in " salt marshes," but I much doubt whether 

 this is ever the case. For, as I have before stated in my ' Botany of 

 the Malvern Hills,' I have always found it " growing on the driest 

 ground." In fact, it seems to delight in the veiy driest red marl mea- 

 dows, where the ground is so hard that it is a difiicult task, without a 

 strong digger or trowel, to get the plant up by the roots. Indeed, I 

 have gathered it on the very summit of Wainlode Cliff, Gloucester- 

 shire, where the soil is a stiff lias clay and limestone. Unfortunately, 

 a good look-out is required to get it in perfection, for it flowers just as 

 the grass is fit for mowing, and if not taken in the nick of time, the 

 scythe remorselessly cuts down every plant. On the other hand, the 

 farmer gives great discouragement to any assault on his mowing grass, 

 and unless one meets with it in a field left for grazing, it is necessary 

 to be sparing in getting many up. One beautiful little meadow at 

 Powick, near the road to the Old Hills, contained this year hundreds 

 of plants, but without trespassing unnecessarily on that, I have found 

 an adjacent strip of barren, thistly pasture, which gives me all I want 

 at present. In July last, a curious and pretty appearance presented 

 itself to my view in a large pasture at Maddresfield, three miles east 

 of Great Malvern. The field was covered with bushes of Genista 



* 'Annals of Natural Histoiy,' vol. x\v. pp. 4 — 7. 



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