630 



has brought forward in his paper (Phytol. for May last) of vegetable 

 periodicity. 



%} Melampyrum arvense. Parasitical (?) Amongst corn, and on 

 the grassy borders of corn-fields and banks contiguous to them in the 

 Isle of Wight, but very local, being entirely confined to its extreme 

 south and south-east side, and generally thought to have been intro- 

 duced with seed-wheat from other parts of England or from the con- 

 tinent. Most profusely in corn-fields (chiefly amongst wheat) above 

 the Undercliff, from Bonchurch westward nearly to Niton, extending 

 backwards or inland to Whitwell, but scarcely, I think, higher up the 

 valley than that village. The district principally infested with this 

 gaudy but most pernicious weed, is a nearly equilateral triangle, of 

 which Whitwell forms the apex, and Niton and St. Lawrence the two 

 basal angles ; for though it has encroached on the land to the east- 

 ward nearly as far as Bonchurch, the quantity there is limited, and 

 the injury it occasions comparatively trifling. I find it also in the 

 Pelham Woods, growing amongst grass and other herbage, and on the 

 rocks and slopes that overhang them, but only in that part of these 

 beautiful woods immediately underneath the beetling crags that form 

 the great mural boundary of the Undercliff, and whither I suppose 

 the seeds to have been conveyed by the winds or by birds from the 

 corn-fields just above and behind them. Yet it is remarkable that 

 the poverty-weed, as it is here called, never descends into and infests 

 the corn-fields that occupy so large a part of the valley or terrace 

 known as the Undercliff, to which its introduction would seem to be 

 inevitable, as one can hardly conceive the belt of wood at the base of 

 the cliff to be any barrier to its encroachments, but keeps entirely to 

 the high grounds, and I believe never occurs off the chalk or chalk- 

 marl, unless, as just mentioned, its appearance on the ledges of the 

 gait or firestone be held an exception. There seems good reason to 

 put faith in the tradition current here, that the purple cow-wheat was 

 introduced to the island at no very distant period, although I cannot 

 find any person who pretends to remember when it was even scarce 

 in their neighbourhood. It was first noticed, I am told, on the Dean 

 and Ash farms by Whitwell, where the wheat and barley have ever 

 since been sadly overrun with it, and the crops greatly deteriorated 

 thereby. In 1838 I found it plentifully in corn-fields at the west end 

 of Ventnor, and creeping on at the back of that village (since risen to 

 the dignity of a town) very nearly to Bonchurch. It behoves the far- 

 mers of West Medina (the greater corn-growing hundred of the two) 

 to be on their guard against its introduction into their chalky soils, 



