629 



S. vernalis will probably prove to be a native of Hampshire, as it oc- 

 curs in Surrey, and according to an anonymous catalogue flora of the 

 neighbourhood of Newbury* in my possession, is common about 

 Bucklebury and Marlestone in Berkshire. Limosella aquatica though 

 not hitherto detected, so far as I am aware, in Hants, cannot I con- 

 ceive be really a stranger to our county, awaiting only the keen and 

 practised eye of an experienced botanist to draw it from the obscu- 

 rity of its native mud. 



Melampyrum cristatum. In dry woods, thickets and copses, es- 

 pecially such as have been recently cut, and on chalk, sometimes 

 amongst corn, rare, and, as it would seem, uncertain or periodical in 

 its appearance. Not found in the Isle of Wight. By Netley Abbey; 

 Rev. Messrs. Gamier and Poulter in Hamp. Repos. Discovered 

 about twenty years ago most abundantly in woods between Claufield 

 and East Meon, by Mr. W. Pamplin. In consequence of an unsuc- 

 cessful search for this beautiful and conspicuous plant by myself in 

 1847, Mr. Pamplin most kindly met me last summer at Petersfield, 

 where we explored the woods in question with no better result, the 

 weather, too, being most unfavourable for a sylvan ramble. Since 

 then, an observation in the excellent ' Flora of Hertfordshire ' by 

 Messrs. Webb and Coleman, has suggested to us the probable 

 cause of our failure, in the fact that this, like many other annuals, 

 may and does vanish for many successive seasons, till circumstances 

 favourable to the germination of the dormant seeds call it again into 

 existence. Mr. Paraplin's botanical accuracy is unimpeached, and 

 having been lately "smitten friendly" by Mr. Lees for a want of faith 

 in the visual accuracy of others, I gladly embrace the opportunity 

 now afforded me of avowing my hearty concurrence in the justice of 

 his remarks, supported, as they are, by the very curious instances he 



* ' A Catalogue of Plants found in the neighbourhood of Newbury,' 1839, 8vo., — 

 a pamphlet of thirty-one pages, which includes several Hampshire stations for plants 

 therein mentioned, as Newbury, the centre of the district examined , is only about 

 two miles from the border of this county. The list on the whole appears worthy of 

 credit, although such announcements as that of Polycarpon tetraphyllum " in waste 

 places at Hampstead Norris" and two other stations; of Illecebrum verticillatum as 

 " common in waste places and by road-sides at Blewbury, and throughout the Vale ;" 

 of Lepidium latifolinm in " peat-pits about Newbury;'' of Cnicus heterophyllus 

 (C. pratensis no doubt) on Woodhay and Cold Ash commons, and of Habenaria al- 

 bida on Lid's bank, Blewbury," &c, coming barely within the range of possibility, 

 but very wide of the bounds of probability, do not tend to strengthen onr confidence 

 in the correctness of the remaining stations, most of which 1 see no great reason to 

 doubt of on the score of unlikelihood. 



