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eastward of any British meridian, and so far inconclusive of the abo- 

 riginally of the Mezereon in our island. It likewise appears to be 

 totally wanting along the entire western coast line of France and the 

 Peninsula, but this line is itself west of the limitrophe meridian, be- 

 yond which the Mezereon is not found wild in England, and therefore 

 does not militate against its claim to be accounted indigenous on 

 points lying to the eastward of that line. But partial inflections or 

 deviations are observable in the general lines of distribution of very 

 many plants ; and if we will not allow the Mezereon to be an aboriginal, 

 it is at least clear that in the south-east of England it has found clima- 

 tic conditions so favourable to spontaneous establishment and disper- 

 sion abroad, as to maintain its ground by sheer power of occupancy, 

 in defiance of means directed against it apparently adequate to ensure 

 its extirpation. A common notion amongst the country people is, 

 that the Mezereon plants in the woods originate from seeds of the 

 garden shrub dropped by birds. I have in another part of this jour- 

 nal (Phytol. ii. 518) expressed the value I attach to this mode of ac- 

 counting for the dissemination of species of assumed foreign descent, 

 and shall now only observe, that most of the Mezereon bushes in the 

 vicinity of the stations where the plant is found wild have been trans- 

 planted seedlings from those very woods that are now but receiving 

 back their inhabitants in the descendants of the latter. That such is 

 the fact in some degree I am not prepared to deny, for as the Meze- 

 reon is doubtless indebted to the agency of birds for its propagation 

 from one natural station to another, it would be strange if seeds of the 

 same species from the gardens should not occasionally find the like 

 means of transport to their original sylvan habitats. But very strong 

 and convincing reasons must be assigned for the opinion, before I can 

 be persuaded that the presence of the Mezereon in our Hampshire 

 woods is due solely to seeds of the cultivated plant conveyed thither 

 by birds : there is nothing but bare conjecture to support this idea, 

 save certain theoretical considerations of geographical distribution, 

 which in the present case are shown to be open to exceptions. It 

 may be said that the silence of the older English botanists on the oc- 

 currence of the Mezereon as a British plant, is another cause for 

 doubting its nativity ; that objection, if admitted, would involve some 

 dozens of generally acknowledged aboriginals in the same uncertainty : 

 it has been met in a late part of these Notes (Phytol. iii. 622). For 

 myself, I am content to follow the example of Fries in forming my 

 judgment in this matter : " Bene novi," he says, " aliis placuisse hanc 

 plantain exclusam, illam additam, in his suo utantur judicio ; equidem 



