759 



Ttumex pulcher. In dry waste places, pastures, borders of fields, 

 by x'oad-sides, under walls, on hedge-banks and in churchyards, by 

 no means unfrequent over the entire county and Isle of Wight. Rare 

 about Ryde. By Quarr Abbey, but sparingly. Border of a corn-field 

 above Sandown Bay, and on the virgin turf of Blading Down near its 

 summit and base, in considerable plenty. On the shore at Bembridge. 

 At Bonchurch and elsewhere in the Undercliff. In various parts of 

 Freshwater Island, as at Freshwater Gate, &c. Very common about 

 Yarmouth; abundant betwixt Yarmouth mill and the town. Particularly 

 partial to churchyards, both in this island and on the main, as in Cal- 

 bourne, Carisbrook, Newchurch, Freshwater, Thorley, Brixton, Bin- 

 stead, and most other churchyards in the island, sometimes very abun- 

 dantly. Occasionally on the tops of our highest downs on the short 

 native turf, but by far the most frequent in the lower and warmer coun- 

 try, being quite a southern species, and probably sensible to severe frost, 

 since in the interior of the European continent, as Germany, it fol- 

 lows the depression of the isothermal curves to the south-east, and in 

 that country barely attains the parallel even of the Isle of Wight. 

 Yet with us it is hardly less common inland than in the mitigated 

 climate of the coast, as I find it dispersed over most parts of the 

 county I have yet visited. Meadows at Porchester, Porchester Castle, 

 sparingly. Havant churchyard. Near Andover. Titchfield. Pe- 

 tersfield and Hambledon churchyards, &c. Fields near the work- 

 house (Fareham) ; Mr. W. L. Notcutt. The Fiddle Dock is abun- 

 dantly naturalized in some parts of the United States, but only in the 

 south, doubtless from inability to resist the northern winters; I found 

 it quite a weed in pastures and waste places at Charleston, New Or- 

 leans, and other southern cities. The epithet of pulcher, to judge by 

 the ungraceful rigidity, straggling habit and general homeliness of its 

 appearance, must have been given to this species in a mood of jocu- 

 lar antithesis ; a less attractive weed could hardly have been selected 

 on which to bestow the praise of beauty than this. 



obtusifolius. In meadows, pastures, waste places, by road- 

 sides, &c, extremely common. 



pratensis. In damp meadows and pastures, by way-sides 



and in marshy places ; probably not rare in the county and Isle of 

 Wight, but it is, I confess, a species I do not well understand, and I 

 dare say have repeatedly overlooked or regarded it as R. crispus or ob- 

 tusifolius. First gathered near Newtown, June 30th, 1842, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Borrer, who drew my attention to it. On Ryde Dover, 

 September, 1843 ; Id. !! In the Cyperus meadow at Apes Down, 



