557 



the town. Amongst brushwood on a high bank of slipped clay at 

 Watch House Point, St. Helens, in great plenty, and fructifying freely; 

 but the place appears to have been a look-out station in former times, 

 though now quite wild and abandoned ; and I once found a beam or 

 rafter, in a state of decay, close to where the plant grows, showing it 

 to have been the site of an habitation, about which the Vinca was 

 probably planted. Plentiful along a hedge in the by-road from Net- 

 tleston Green to Sea View, doubtless escaped from the shrubbery at 

 Fairy Hill. In similar places about Norton, Yarmouth, Godshill, 

 &c, as well as on the mainland of Hants; not uncommonly. Scarcely 

 a native north of latitude 45°, and therefore excluded from nine-tenths 

 of the floras of central Europe ; whilst in the remainder, as those of 

 Paris and Switzerland, its claim to insertion is not better than with 

 ourselves. 



Chlora perfollata. In woods and pastures, on banks and cliffs by 

 the sea ; very common in the Isle of Wight, growing both on the 

 wettest clay and the driest chalk. Frequent on the banks of slipped 

 clay along the shore on both sides of Ryde, and plentiful on the steep 

 face of the chalk cliffs at the upper end of Sandown Bay. About 

 Luccombe Chine, Shanklin, Ventnor, and indeed along the entire line of 

 coast round the island, and equally frequent in the interior, as about 

 Carisbrook, Newport, and most other places. Hardly less frequent, 

 I believe, on mainland Hants, but I have not paid attention myself 

 to its distribution in that part of the county. On Bordean Hill. 

 In Maindell chalk-pit ; Mr. W. L. Notcutt (in plenty, October, 

 1848). Plantation by Wheely Cottage, near Warn ford ; Rev. E. M. 

 Sladen. Selborne ; Rev. G. White : probably common over the en- 

 tire county. 



The beautiful golden yellow flowers expand only in sunshine or a 

 strong light, closing early in the afternoon (about two) for the rest of 

 the day, and not opening again till the following morning about eight 

 or nine. If a handful of the plant be gathered and placed in water, 

 the flowers will continue to open and close at the accustomed hour 

 for several successive days ; when once shut, exposure to the sun's 

 rays proves insufficient to stimulate them to expand a second time, 

 until the usual period of repose has elapsed. The ovary of this plant 

 is full of a greenish yellow and very glutinous, but scarcely bitter, 

 juice, only found in that particular part; the rest of the herb is very 

 bitter, but juiceless. 



Erythrcea pulchella. In dry sandy or gravelly fields, pastures, 

 and waste places, not unfrequent, though less common than the fol- 



