879 



hosts of cures of various diseases from the alleged wonderful properties 

 of the vervain. 



Primula veris. I mention this as plentiful in various places on 

 the Orme's Head, where no primrose was apparent, and I have no- 

 ticed the same thing on St. David's Head, in Pembrokeshire. 



Samolus Valerandi. In watery ditches on Llandudno Common. 

 Abundant near Barmouth, towards Cors Gochno. 



Statice spathulata. Plentiful on the shore of the Conway river. 



Polygonum Bait. On the sands below Craig Diganwy. 



Mercurialis annua. Dr. Bromfield, in his interesting remarks on 

 the Hampshire plants, suggests this as " more deserving of the aster- 

 isk " than many others that have it. I have noticed it, however, on 

 various parts of the coast both of North and South Wales. At Bar- 

 mouth, Merionethshire, it is plentiful on the sands edging the marshes 

 inland in spots where no gardens could ever have been, and where it 

 is unlikely it could have been introduced any more than the other 

 littoral weeds with which it grows. Certainly, like Solanum nigrum, 

 with which it is often in company, it is fond of intruding, if it can, 

 upon olitory ground. 



Parietaria officinalis. Excessively plentiful about the Orme's 

 Head at present, but I would not feel certain that it was always so ; 

 as pellitory-of-the-wall, time-honoured still, was one of the category 

 that the herbalist would have been sorry not to have had easily within 

 reach. 



Salix fusca, var. argentea. In one place on the Orme's Head, 

 where, in a broken ravine, a spring lazily weeps down among masses 

 of Eupatorium cannabinum, and other rank aquatics, to the sea. 



Taxus baccata. An indigenous mass on Bryn Maelgvvyn, and nu- 

 merous isolated trees pushed obliquely by the wind from the sea about 

 Eglws Rhos. 



Juniperus communis. On many of the rocks of the Orme's Head 

 to the very summit westward, but procumbent on the limestone, the 

 boisterous gales not permitting it to rise upward. Yet as most of the 

 roots are large and of great age, it is easy to imagine that the now 

 " white pow" of the promontory had in earlier times a more verdant if 

 not grove-like aspect. The original upright junipers have evidently 

 been cut down, but when scattered in verdant masses, as in druidi- 

 cal times, must have rendered the upper stories and stone circles on 

 the cliffs far more sheltered places of observation than they are at 

 present. On " my Grandmother's Chair," an isolated limestone hill 

 near Gloddaeth, some upright clumps of juniper still remain on the 



