406 



much, for he says, "Fruit oblong cylindrique (oblong simply in CE. 

 Lachenalii) retreci a la base, reserre sous le calice." Are the two 

 species really distinct ? 



CEnanthe crocata. An extremely abundant and universal species 

 in wet, boggy places, ditches, drains and sides of brooks throughout 

 the Isle of Wight, and, as far as I have observed, the county gene- 

 rally. In the black, rotten soil of the deep, boggy thickets that oc- 

 cupy the hollows at the foot of the chalk downs, this rank and poi- 

 sonous umbellate chokes the ground with a forest of tall but succulent 

 and yielding stems, that emit a virose odour as they are successively 

 broken down in forcing a passage through them. The plant is 

 known in this island by the name of belder-root, and it is alleged, fre- 

 quently proves fatal to swine that turn up and devour the large, fleshy 

 tubers of which the roots consist. The existence of a yellow juice in 

 this species, which gave rise to the specific name, has been a subject 

 of controversy. Dr. Salter finds it in the plant of the neighbourhood 

 of Poole (Phytol. ii. 1 16), and also, though of a paler colour, in others 

 from Bembridge, in this island. I have never myself remarked such 

 coloured juice to flow from fracture or incision here, but have now 

 and then found minute masses of a saffron or orange yellow matter 

 within the hollow of the stems, which had the appearance of an in- 

 spissated exudation of the proper latex. 



Phellandrium. A common species apparently in main- 

 land Hants, and thought to have been seen by the Rev. G. E. Smith 

 and Mr. Curtis (Brit. Entom. xi. fol. 506), at the back of the Isle of 

 Wight. I have never detected it here myself, where so many of our 

 British aquatics are wanting or exceedingly rare, from the limited 

 amount of water surface the island affords, and the insularity of posi- 

 tion acting as a check to their dispersion over it from other parts. 

 As neither of my informants seems certain on the point, I may fairly 

 assume them to have been in error, because I am ignorant of any 

 spot likely, or indeed capable, of producing a plant requiring the 

 depth of water which this does, near the place specified, though in 

 the marsh ditches at Freshwater and Sandown the total absence of 

 this CEnanthe may justly excite surprise, considering how plentiful it 

 is immediately on crossing the Solent. Abundant in ditches at Go- 

 mer Pond, Gosport. Plentiful with the following (CE. fluviatilis) in 

 clear streams around Wincher, Gill Copse, Titchfield River, the Sal- 

 terns (near Fareham) ; Mr. W. L. Notcutt (Phytol. ii. 206). By the 

 old canal at Millbrook (Southton), Id. in litt. 



jiuviatilis. In rivers and streams. Abundant in the 



