512 



looking just like a sea beach, and close to a bridge, where were 

 seven or eight, if not more, of the ruderale growing. I left three or 

 four that were in seed as a stock, yet last year no fresh ones had 

 sprung up, and probably a long time may elapse ere it appears for 

 botanical inspection again in that place. 



Cardamine impatiens is in some districts a rare plant, and generally 

 affects hilly spots ; but three years since a new embankment of earth 

 was raised on the side of the river Teme, near Powick, in this county, 

 with the view of protecting the meadows from sudden floods, and the 

 following year C. impatiens grew most luxuriantly and profusely on 

 and about this mound. Yet last year, on visiting the spot and looking 

 closely about, not a plant of the impatiens was anywhere observable. 



I have myself been called to account by several friends for the re- 

 cord of some plants in my ' Botany of the Malvern Hills,' which they 

 could not find in the spots there designated. It is really very hard 

 to be held responsible for the vagrant habits of plants ; but let inves- 

 tigators get upon their trail, and take them up if they can. One 

 vagabondizer I at least detected before it had got very far away. 

 Erodium maritimum grew for some years to my observation on a rock 

 at the entrance of " the winding valley " between the North Hill and 

 the Worcestershire Beacon. When I left Malvern, in 1843, the plant 

 was certainly there, where T had often gathered it; but the second 

 year after, it was gone from its position, and 1 actually detected a 

 new colony two miles from the hill, on the side of the road towards 

 my new residence. They were certainly on my track, and I believe 

 the Erodium is now off on its travels again ! But in the old station 

 it is no more to be seen. 



Littoral plants may remain in an inland county as relics of a past 

 state of things; and this is certainly the case as respects Worcester- 

 shire, which, though now out of reach of the tidal wave, had formerly 

 brackish backwaters, more connected with high tides than they are at 

 present. Such are the Longdon marshes. Here Scirpus maritimus 

 yet grows, and I have gathered Gastridium lendigerum in the same 

 vicinity. Also Bupleurum tenuissimum and Samolus Valerandi near 

 Worcester ; and Alsine rubra /3. media (not distinguishable at sight 

 from A. marina), Glaux maritima, in great profusion, and Sclerochloa 

 distans, on the banks of the salt-water Droitwich canal. Yet a bota- 

 nist unacquainted with the peculiarities of the county might consider 

 the occurrence of such plants unlikely, and as originating in error. 

 Indeed some of them cannot at all times be found. CEnanthe piru- 

 pinelloides appears to me to mark the boundary of a line of backwater 



