518 



absent, and some of our larger woods produce specimens by hun- 

 dreds.* 



I am not disposed to attach any importance to the usual mode 

 of accounting for the dissemination 6f naturalized species by birds 

 dropping the seeds, because I take that to be the means which Na- 

 ture mainly relies on for the propagation of species unfurnished with 

 such mechanical contrivances for the ready conveyance of their seeds 

 abroad, as we see in the pappus of the Compositae, the dissilient cap- 

 sules of many Euphorbiace®, the Oxalidaceae, balsams, &c. She 

 would avail herself of the like animal agency in the wilds of America 

 or the virgin forests of Guiana, as in the well-peopled and cultivated 

 fields of Europe. It is the extent and power of occupancy which 

 must guide us in determining the indigenous origin of species amongst 

 us, coupled with a careful inquiry into their geographical distribution 

 elsewhere,! which last will often clear up doubts and overcome our 

 scruples when nothing else would arise to do so. 



Unless it can be shown that a species did not formerly exist where 

 it now grows in abundance, such hypothetical appeal to the fowls of 

 the air will not advance us a step nearer to a settlement of the point 

 at issue. But T have an additional reason, which I shall now state, 

 for believing the red currant to be truly indigenous to this and other 

 of our southern counties of England. 



* I may mention in particular, the beautiful sloping woods about Swainston, and 

 various flat, wet coppices in the parish of Freshwater, some of which are full of red 

 currant plants, for the most part small, single shrubs, a foot or two in height, occa- 

 sionally branched, and even somewhat bushy, but of a lax, straggling habit, quite dif- 

 ferent from the garden red currant. 



f Till a greater number of our botanists devote some share of attention to this 

 most important and interesting department of their science, it is in vain to expect 

 any agreement amongst them as to what plants are or are not indigenous to our is- 

 land. At present we seem to do little but copy the opinions of others without much 

 inquiry, or pin our belief on some antiquated, obscure, or distorted passage of classi- 

 cal authority. The traditional reasons which have been advanced for rejecting the 

 cherry, the beech and the hop from the catalogue of our aborigines, are known to most 

 readers. An excellent practical botanist gravely told me he thought it probable the 

 holly was originally introduced into this country from Japan ! Loudon (Arbor. Brit.) 

 thought the elder not indigenous, and the Arbutus of the west of Ireland must have 

 been planted, in the opinion of some, by the good monks of Mucruss, though it is evi- 

 dent, from certain species that accompany it thither, that its occurrence is owing to a 

 natural extension in a north-westerly direction, of a part of the Spanish and Portu- 

 guese Floras to the mild and equable shores of that island. Even the humble violet 

 of our woods and groves has been robbed of the rights of a true born Briton, and boldly 

 declared an alien in a catalogue lately published by botanists of undoubted ability. 



