511 



long time. I have in my herbarium a specimen gathered at the base 

 of the North Hill, Great Malvern, prior to 1830, yet for years after- 

 ward I could never find any more specimens ; until in 1841, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Moggridge, of Swansea, several hundreds occurred 

 half-way up the adjoining hill, all growing together. I have been 

 often times since to the spot to see if the colony continued there, but 

 they have all taken flight. Some years since this Gnaphalium used 

 to grow plentifully in Shrawley Wood, near Worcester, but it is 

 scarcely to be found there now, or must be very closely sought for. 

 I remember an excursion I once made on the Cotswold Hills with 

 Professor Buckman, of the Agricultural College, Cirencester, when, 

 in a field on Cleevedown that had recently been made arable, the 

 profusion of G. sylvaticum that covered the ground on the declivity 

 was astonishing; but the next year the Professor informed me very 

 few plants remained, and the third year every vestige of them was 

 gone. I have since then been on the spot, but neither there nor any- 

 where about the vicinity could the plant be met with on the most di- 

 ligent search. A similar fact occurred to the view of my friend Mr. 

 William Mathews, jun., of Park Hall, near Kidderminster, the Secre- 

 tary of our Botanical and Naturalists' Club, who, the year before last, 

 noticed hundreds of G. sylvaticum in a field recently converted from 

 pasture to arable. Probably now none could be found, nor had they 

 been seen there previously. 



Such appearances doubtless occur with other species, and it is in- 

 teresting to note them, for " Saturnian times return ;" and I have 

 known plants revisit their old stations after long absence. It does 

 not appear very easy to determine whether, in the case of fresh turned 

 up soil, the seeds had long lain dormant there, or whether elemental 

 action had brought them from a distance ; perhaps both causes may 

 operate. But the migrations of plants being often very capricious, 

 and even unaccountable, as daily experience shows, I think the ob- 

 servations of former labourers in the field ought not to be disregarded 

 as doubtful or erroneous, or dismissed at once, as they sometimes are 

 by closet;reasoners, as unlikely. 



Several plants are recorded by Dr. Stokes, in his edition of Wi- 

 thering 1 s Botany, 1787, as growing near Worcester, which are not 

 now to be found there. Among these is Lepidium ruderale, " on the 

 side of the Severn above Worcester," which I could never meet with. 

 But in 1847, botanizing with my friend Mr. Baxter, of the College 

 School, in this city, on the banks of the saline Droitwich canal, we 

 most unexpectedly came upon a rough, pebbly piece of ground, 



