408 



a hole of mostly small diameter, sometimes in the upper, sometimes 

 in the lower part of the stem, the rest, and sometimes the entire stem 

 is filled up solid throughout. The sweet fennel of the gardens and F. 

 piperitum of Tenore are probably only varieties of our common wild 

 species. 



Libanotis montana (Atharaanta Libanotis, Sm.) having now been 

 found in Sussex, may with perhaps equal probability be expected on 

 our Hampshire hills, the vegetation of this county inclining rather to 

 the eastern than to the western type, though from its situation parti- 

 cipating in the forms of both very strongly. 



Silaus pratensis. In rather moist meadows and pastures, on hedge- 

 banks, by road-sides, and in open, grassy places in woods, frequent 

 in very many parts of the Isle of Wight and of the county, but 

 though a perennial, apt, I think, to become scarce in certain years, 

 like QEnanthe pimpinelloides. Abundant in various places about 

 Ryde, and particularly so this last summer of 1848, also about Brad- 

 ing, Yarmouth, Cowes, Wootton, Thorley, &c, very abundantly at 

 times. Along the south-coast (Portsmouth and Brighton) railway, 

 betwixt Portsea and Havant, and at Langston. Meadows at Ando- 

 ver, and betwixt Selborne and Oakhanger. Near Fareham ; Mr. W. 

 L. Notcutt. One of the neatest and prettiest of our native species of 

 the order, with a powerful aroma, like the rind of the bitter orange. 



Crithmum maritimum. On rocks and cliffs by the sea; very 

 abundantly, but chiefly along the south and south-western coasts of 

 the Isle of Wight. On rocky ledges of the cliffs behind Bonchurch, 

 some hundreds of yards from the shore, plentifully. Profusely on 

 the chalk cliffs from the Needles to Compton, also betwixt Ventnor 

 and Niton, in Sandown Bay and elsewhere along the coast. About 

 Southampton, Gerarde, and possibly in other places along the main- 

 land shores of the county, but the line of the Hampshire coast is in 

 most parts so low and flat as hardly to afford congenial localities for 

 the growth of this valuable plant. 



Samphire or sampire (a corruption of Saint Pierre, to whom this 

 plant was dedicated, perhaps from its growing so much upon rocks) 

 forms a yearly article of exportation from this island for pickling. 

 The plant is collected at great personal risk by people called cliffs- 

 men, who used to pay an annual tribute (now remitted) to the lord of 

 the manor of Freshwater for the privilege of taking both this and the 

 eggs of sea-fowl, that breed in vast numbers in the stupendous chalk 

 cliffs, which rise, like impregnable ramparts, to 600 feet, at the 

 extreme south-west corner of the Isle of Wight. The eggs (of 



