897 



artificial character ; but now that it is ascertained to inhabit abun- 

 dantly many of our natural waters, continuance of disbelief in its 

 aboriginality would be ridiculous. Nevertheless, our only known 

 Hampshire station is still open to suspicion in no trifling degree, in- 

 asmuch as the circumstances of the plant's appearance at Leigh Park 

 strongly favours the probability of its having been imported with 

 Nymphaea odorata direct from America. I say a probability only, 

 because there is no direct proof of its introduction to the pond at 

 Leigh Park beyond its having been unnoticed previous to planting the 

 said aquatics, for I understand the pond in which it grows was an ar- 

 tificial enlargement merely of a natural spring or basin, in which the 

 Udora may have pre-existed and have escaped observation, as it must 

 have done in so many of its subsequently detected habitats. I am 

 indebted to my friend Dr. T. Bell Salter for living specimens from 

 Leigh Park, but these have not yet flowered with me, nor have I vi- 

 sited the station, deterred, as I was, from doing so, by the impression 

 that the Udora had no real claim to insertion in the Hampshire flora. 

 The subsequent discovery of this plant in so many distant and truly 

 natural localities in England and Scotland has considerably lessened 

 my unwillingness to receive it into the Hampshire Catalogue, and has 

 induced me no longer to withhold from it the benefit of the doubt, 

 which may fairly be raised as well in its favour as against it. But 

 this reluctance to admit its claim to enrolment amongst our county 

 plants, has hitherto prevented me from examining its characters and 

 ascertaining its undoubted identity with the American Udora cana- 

 densis. Yet feeling pretty well satisfied that this is the case, I here 

 enter it provisionally as such, until future observations on the Leigh 

 Park plant by myself or others shall confirm or disprove the fact. 

 The very highly curious and closely- related Vallisneria spiralis, found 

 in similar places with our Udora nearly throughout Europe, will one 

 day probably occupy a place in the British Flora, together with Na- 

 jas marina and Caulinia fragilis, plants allied to the two former in 

 habit, but belonging to another, though not very widely remote natu- 

 ral order. 



Orchis Morio. In dry meadows and short turfy or heathy pastures; 

 very common throughout the county and Isle of Wight, being, in fact, 

 the most abundant of the Orchidaceae in spring and early summer 

 with us. Fields at Quarr Abbey and elsewhere about Ryde. Abun- 

 dant about Cowes, Newport, Yarmouth, and most other parts of the 

 island. Occurs here occasionally, though rarely, with pure white 

 flowers ; and in May, 1845, I noticed in a meadow betwixt Pigslegs 



Vol. iti. 5 z 



