743 



as I have personally searched every accessible spot along the whole 

 range of the majestic chalk rampart from Freshwater Gate westward 

 to the Needles, and round the point into Alum Bay, without success, 

 and have likewise instructed the clifFsmen, in their perilous task of 

 samphire-gathering, to send me any plants of sea lavender they might 

 find on the cliffs, but which they assure me they have not yet fallen 

 in with.* Should these ' Notes' meet his eye, Mr. Lees may perhaps 

 still have it in his power to dispel the doubt, so far as he is concerned, 

 regarding this species as indigenous to the Isle of Wight, by examin- 

 ing his specimens afresh, and communicating the result to the pages 

 of this journal, or through private communication to myself, as he 

 thinks proper ; either of which courses I should esteem a favour from 

 that gentleman. Although the existence of S. spathulata as a Vectian 

 species rests on somewhat uncertain grounds, I retain it on the list of 

 natives from the respectability of the testimony given, but rather du- 

 biously, by Mr. Smith, and because I think it most probable that the 

 plant of Messrs. Wood and Price and that of Mr. Lees was the same, 

 and in the latter case unlikely to have been S. Limonium from the 

 nature of the situation in which it was found growing, besides which, 

 the chalk cliffs of this island are just the localities where the S. spa- 

 thulata may reasonably be supposed to have occurred. I have myself 

 gathered it in precisely analogous places near Dover, where Mr. 

 Smith first noticed it, and published it as a plant new to Britain. 



Armeria vulgaris. On rocks, cliffs, banks and pastures by the sea, 

 as well as on the shore itself; abundantly on the island and main- 

 land, along most parts of the coast. By the Medina, the Yar, on the 

 spit at St. Helen's, &c. Var. &. Flowers white; very rare? Amongst 

 the abandoned Salterns near Lymington, towards Milford, in one spot 

 abundantly with the common red sort, June 3rd, 1849. The flower- 

 ing time of this, as of many other of our native plants, is very incor- 

 rectly given in books. The common Thrift begins to flower in ordi- 

 nary years with us here in April, and is ever in good bloom in May, 

 continuing to blossom on till September, whereas our British authors 

 assign July for the commencement of inflorescence. 



* To botanists visiting Freshwater, who may wish to procure specimens of the wild 

 stock, samphire, or other plants inaccessible from above to the longest arm, I would 

 beg to recommend a cliffsman named Jackman, whom I have been in the habit of 

 employing for some years past, for his civility, intelligence and activity, and who may 

 generally be found in attendance as a boatman at Freshwater Gate on inquiry at 

 Groves's Hotel. 



