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Occurrence of Mimulus luleus near Brechin. 

 By W. Anderson, Esq. 



During last month I collected specimens of Mimulus lutens on 

 the muir below the bridge of Dun, about four miles from Brechin. 

 The plant was in great abundance, and perfectly naturalized. 



Mr. Kerr, of Montrose, has observed it growing near Dun Mill, 

 situated near the Brechin road, for the last five years, and here also 

 it is most abundant and perfectly naturalized. 



This plant is rapidly spreading itself over the country, and now 

 appears in some places to be quite indigenous. Although we are well 

 aware of its native origin, and know that in Scotland it must have 

 originally been an outcast from a garden, yet I think its claims to a 

 place in the British Flora are now fully equal to those of Impatiens 

 noli-me-tangere or Iberis amara. 



I have forwarded these observations for publication in the ' Phy- 

 tologist' because I regard the record of plants, known to be intro- 

 duced, thus naturalizing themselves, as affording additional informa- 

 tion on the geographical distribution of plants. 



William Anderson. 



Dun Nursery, Brechin, 

 20th July, 1848. 



[From Mr. Anderson's observations, and several others which I 

 have met with in different journals, 1 am quite inclined to agree with 

 him in regarding Mimulus luteus as now "perfectly naturalized" in 

 Britain. The same may I think be said of the originally American 

 Impatiens fulva. The Mimulus and the Impatiens are now to all ap- 

 pearance so firmly established that I believe it would be difficult, if 

 not impossible, for man to eradicate them. Thus we have two plants 

 whose exotic origin is admitted by all, taking up their abode amongst 

 us, freely multiplying their kind, and bidding fair to maintain their 

 position against all casualties. These instances certainly lead to the 

 belief, if not to the conviction, that very many of our now-unques- 

 tioned natives may have had a similar exotic origin, and we must 

 anticipate that the botanists of future generations will accept the Im- 

 patiens and the Mimulus as equally indigenous with those species 

 whose introduction bears an earlier and therefore obscurer date. I 

 do not see why we should make laws to exclude plants because we 

 fancy we have witnessed their introduction : the loss of a rood of 



