495 



Note on the English Localities for Cerastiiim alpinum. 

 By Hewett C. Watson, Esq. 



In the February * Phytologist ' (Phytol. ii. 423) Mr. James Back- 

 house records the finding of Cerastium alpinum on Striden Edge, 

 Helvellyn ; and he adds, " a plant frequently met with in Scotland, 

 but not, that I know of, recorded in any botanical work as a native 

 of England." There would have seemed more justice to his prede- 

 cessors, had Mr. Backhouse looked into the most likely work for as- 

 certaining the fact, before sending the remark for print. The same 

 locality, of the Patterdale side of Helvellyn, was recorded in the first 

 volume of the * New Botanist's Guide,' ten years ago, on the authority 

 of the late Mr. Winch's manuscript notes — a most industrious and 

 generally correct compiler of botanical localities in the northern coun- 

 ties. In the Supplement, printed in the second volume of the same 

 work, the locality is explained more specially by the mention of "Stri- 

 den Edge," on the authority of Mr. Joseph Woods, who, indeed, was 

 the original informant of Mr. Winch, so long ago as 1828. Mr. 

 Woods first, I think, published that locality in Hooker's ' Companion 

 to the Botanical Magazine.' A Lincolnshire locality is copied into 

 Turner and Dillwyn's ' Guide ;' and it is re-copied into the * New 

 Guide,' though as one probably erroneous. The same species has 

 been repeatedly recorded as a Caernarvonshire plant ; but Mr. Back- 

 house may not consider that locality sufficiently an English one, even 

 in contrast with the Scottish Highlands. I communicated these facts 

 to Mr. Backhouse, in the hope that he might correct the error himself, 

 but in reply, that gentleman writes, " Thou art quite at liberty to rec- 

 tify my mistake in the * Phytologist,' and it may be well, at the same 

 time, to correct another of my blunders of a similar character, where, 

 at page 894, it is stated that Polemonium caeruleum, which is found 

 in Teesdale, was new to that district, whereas we afterwards noticed 

 that it had been previously found by John Bell, of Middleton, in 

 Teesdale. See 'Phytologist,' page 741." 



Hewett C. Watson. 



Thames DiUou, 



February 25, 1846, 



