426 



on the same plant, at other times matured in abundance. The slen- 

 der bright red root abounds in colouring principle, and would pro- 

 bably, if cultivated, yield as good madder as those of R. tinctorum. 

 I suspect the R. lucida of southern Europe is not distinct from ours, 

 whose variable habit, Bertoloni remarks (Flor. Ital. ii., p. 148), has 

 given rise to several false species, which he has traced into one ano- 

 ther. R. peregrina is given by Ledebour as a native of the south of 

 Russia ; may not his plant be different from ours, which is quite a 

 species of southern and western Europe, confined to the Atlantic and 

 Mediterranean climates of the continent, and wholly unknown to all 

 the interior countries ? It is hardly credible, therefore, that so tender 

 a plant should be able to withstand the rigorous winters which dis- 

 tinguish the climate of Russia proper, even as low as the Black Sea 

 provinces. I am at present unable to assign any station for R. pere- 

 grina on the mainland of Hants, where, if not wanting, it must be 

 very uncommon, yet I cannot help thinking it must grow along the 

 coast at least, though I have not myself remarked it or heard of it 

 from others. The wild madder is assuredly one of our most beauti- 

 ful native plants, and its light panicles of greenish yellow flowers are 

 not devoid of elegance, relieved by the deep verdure of its thick, 

 shining, persistent leaves, which, when young, have a fine reddish 

 brown tinge, and contribute, by the exuberant profusion with which 

 they clothe rocky bank and bushy brae in many parts of this island, 

 to enliven the monotony of the winter landscape, as much as they 

 add lustre to the gayer garniture of summer scenery. 



%Centranthus ruber. Subspontaneous ; on old walls and build- 

 ings ; not uncommon. Plentiful on Yarmouth Castle and on the gar- 

 den wall of Morton House, Blading. Carisbrook Castle walls. On 

 the rocks behind the houses at Ventnor, &c, but in all cases evi- 

 dently originating from gardens, and retaining the variety of colour 

 imparted to the flowers by cultivation. Said to be abundant in old 

 chalk-pits in Kent, and, as Smith thought, perfectly wild, and on the 

 rocks at Dawlish it looks more like a native than in any place I have 

 seen it in elsewhere. The French Floras, even of the south, give it 

 as mostly naturalized, nor do the Italian stations seem less excep- 

 tionable than our own. Gerarde says it was not common in England 

 in his time, but being a plant of western and maritime Europe it may 

 possibly be aboriginal on calcareous rocks in the south of England, 

 though as far as regards the Isle of Wight and Hampshire generally, 

 a certainly introduced and semi-naturalized species. 



Valeriana officinalis. In wet thickets, on the banks of ditches 



