661 



in the same places with the present. I have gathered it in plenty on 

 the rocks of the Castle Hill, at Hastings. 



Calamintha sylvatica. In shady (always upland ?) woods and 

 thickets ; very rare. Profusely in woods on the western side of a 

 small valley betwixt Apes Down and Rowledge farms, about three 

 miles W.S.W. of Newport, the only station at present known for this 

 plant in Britain !!! For a full account of this species and its charac- 

 ters see Phytol. i. p. 768, ii. p. 49, and E. B. Suppl. iv. t. 2897. The 

 most beautiful of all the British Labiatse, Mellitis Melissophyllum not 

 excepted, but as remarked in the two works just quoted, it requires 

 either the natural shelter of trees and bushes in its native habitats, or 

 artificial protection from wind and other elemental vicissitudes to de- 

 velope it in perfection. Some of my friends, who, contrary to my ad- 

 vice, have cultivated it in the open border alone, have expressed 

 themselves disappointed in the beauty they were led to expect it 

 would display, and have even thought they could trace its conversion 

 into the common C. officinalis, but this is quite an error. Certain it 

 is, that when raised in the open flower-border, the plant, even of the 

 first generation, quickly becomes stunted in all its parts, the flowers 

 shrink to little more than half their usual size, and become much 

 deeper coloured and fewer in number, but in no instance does it lose 

 any of the characters proper to the species, or assume those of C. of- 

 ficinalis. I have had it in constant cultivation since 1843, in St. 

 John's garden, near this town, along with C. officinalis. The latter 

 thrives luxuriantly in the most exposed part of the garden, as might 

 be expected from its natural predilection for sunny, open exposures, 

 whilst C. sylvatica as invariably languishes in proportion as it is re- 

 moved from the sheltering influence of taller plants or shrubs, thriving 

 at best but tolerably where such partial protection is afforded it. But 

 when grown in pots and treated as an in-door or greenhouse peren- 

 nial, few exotics of the order are more worthy of the care bestowed on 

 it, as well for the extreme brilliancy of the large, delicately-tinted 

 blossoms, as for the grateful odour of the herbage, like that of pepper- 

 mint. My friend Dr. Salter has it constantly in his drawing-room 

 window, and is very successful in its treatment, which indeed is very 

 simple, the plant requiring only to be kept out of the wind or currents 

 of air in a moderate temperature, as when thus sheltered the direct 

 influence of the sun seems rather beneficial than injurious to its full 

 development. In this way I have seen it form quite a bush, with 

 long, leafy branches, more than two feet in length, crowded from 



