621 



%Linaria Cymbalaria. Introduced, but now completely naturalized 

 on old, moist or rough walls (rarely on hedgebanks) throughout the 

 county and Isle of Wight ; very frequent. On the ruins of Quarr 

 Abbey, Binstead, but sparingly. Abundantly on old walls about 

 Knighton Manor. Walls at Shorwell, Cowes, Ventnor, Newport &c. 

 On stone fences at St. Lawrence, and about the Orchard (Sir Wil- 

 loughby Gordon's), plentifully. It has established itself on a stony 

 declivity at Bank End, Undercliff, just beyond the farm towards St. 

 Lawrence. Profusely on old walls at Winchester. At Petersfield, 

 Southampton, Botley &c. Wallington, near Fareham ; Mr. W. L. 

 Notcutt. Now dispersed over the greater part of central and southern 

 Europe, and profusely bedecking the venerable walls of our ancient 

 towns in the south of England with its mantling tresses of purple, and 

 deep shining green, but apparently rare till within a comparatively 

 recent period. Mr. Borrer I believe remembers when it was almost 

 unknown in Sussex, and was himself instrumental in aiding its dis- 

 semination in that county; and the writer of these remarks has several 

 times heard it related as a family tradition, that a near relative of his 

 own, long since deceased, who was much devoted to her garden and 

 greenhouse, received a pot of Cymbalaria, as it was then called, from 

 the late Sir Joseph Banks as a welcome botanical present. From 

 Sir James Smith's account of this plant in his 'English Flora' and in 

 * English Botany,' one would be led to infer that our public botanic 

 gardens were the original puncta salientia from whence it had 

 spread itself over the land, and few persons seem aware of its having 

 been known in England long prior to the existence of these institu- 

 tions amongst us. It is distinctly named and described both by 

 Gerarde and Parkinson in 1636 and 1640, who give very tolerable 

 figures of it, the former especially (Ger. em. p. 529, fig. 6), who says 

 it " growes wilde upon walls in Italy, but in gardens with us." Par- 

 kinson's woodcut (* Theatrum Botanicum,' p. 682, — Cymbalaria 

 hederacea) is much inferior to Gerarde's, but his account is more cir- 

 cumstantial, for he tells us " It groweth naturally in divers places of 

 our land, although formerly it hath not beene knowne to bee but in 

 gardens, as about Hatfield in Hartfordshire, both in their gardens 

 and other places that are shadie upon the ground, for there it will 

 alwayes best like to grow, as also upon thatched houses in the north 

 parts, as 1 am given to understand, and most abundantly in Lanca- 

 shire and in my garden, where it runneth up from the ground on the 

 wall a pretty height." Smith, who uniformly cites the figures of both 

 these authors, seems to have overlooked them in this instance, and it 



