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acknowledgement of citizenship. I will give what I consider an instance 

 in point. The starch hyacinth (Muscari racemosum) is set down by 

 Mr. Watson in the ' Cybele ' as an alien, without a query expressed, 

 and with the omission of the usual comital census. Mr. Babington 

 marks it in the 'Manual' as a doubtful, and Sir Wm. Hooker as a 

 certainly introduced, plant. Now why should this be so ? — Muscari 

 racemosum is found in sandy fields and grassy places throughout 

 southern and central Europe, in the west as well as the east in Bel- 

 gium, France, Germany, &c, being the most common and northern 

 species of its genus. I gathered it in April, 1835, in profusion over 

 a great extent of sandy ground, and in fallow-fields at Cavenham 

 (pronounced Canham), eight miles north-west of Bury, in Suffolk, be- 

 tween that town and Mildenhall, where it is certainly native and 

 quite a weed in that neighbourhood, and I was told at Pakenham and 

 Hengrave likewise. See also E. Gillingham's ' Account of Bury,' 

 1804, p. 288. Now upon what principle do those act who doubt or 

 reject this plant as belonging to the British Flora ? Upon none that 

 I can imagine, except that it is rare, or rather very local, in this 

 country; that being a frequent object of cultivation as an ornamental 

 flower in British gardens, it is assumed to have become naturalized 

 from that source, and lastly, from a vague, unquestioned opinion that 

 it is a species proper to the south of Europe, and therefore not likely 

 or even possible to be indigenous with us. For my own part, I am 

 fully persuaded Muscari racemosum is a genuine native of the east of 

 England, and that the very long known station on the earthy ledge of 

 the old city wall of Norwich is a natural one. As to the objected 

 silence of old authors on this and other modern additions to the Bri- 

 tish Flora, I have before shown (Phytol. iii. 622) how untenable that 

 argument is and irreconcileable with fact, for once admit it, and what 

 becomes of the claim of such undenied and undeniable British plants 

 as Lobelia urens, Erica ciliaris, Briza minor, Euphorbia hyberna, 

 Trichonema Columnae, and many besides, that from their local distri- 

 bution escaped notice in England up to a late or comparatively late 

 period ? I have also shown, under Campanula (Phytol. iii. 129), how 

 plants of a continental or eastern distribution become scarce or local 

 in westerly and insular countries, or fail there altogether ; but that is 

 no reason why they should not, as we see they do, occur partially and 

 sporadically in such l-egions, or for our refusing to own them for na- 

 tives when found. Now let us see how the case stands with the more 

 immediate subject of these remarks, the Fritillaria Meleagris. This 

 species needs not so much defence against the sceptics as some others, 



