1082 



lington Church, scattered over a considerable extent of salt marsh. 

 I again fell in with it abundantly in a swampy spot close to a stag- 

 nant pool at the farther end of a large grass-field a little way out of 

 Porchester, along with the following species, July 14, 1849.* Mr. 

 L. H. Jacob, of^Landport, Portsea Island, lately in the excise, but 

 now retired, who possesses a considerable knowledge of British plants, 

 and has botanized the mountains of Forfarshire with Mr. Gardiner, 

 assures me that P. monspeliensis grows in several parts of Portsea 

 Island, and particularly in a lane leading up from a place called the 

 Salterns, or the rough Salterns (now abandoned) to a farm (Tangier 

 Farm ?) on the east side of the island, along with P. littoralis ; and 

 further, that P. monspeliensis grows in the north-west parts of Port- 

 sea Island, near Hillsea Barracks and elsewhere.f First discovered 

 in Hants, according to Lobel,J by the Rev. Richard Garth, in wet, 

 grassy places (riguis herbidis) near salt-works and old houses, called 

 Drayton, two miles from Portsmouth. If the distance be here given 

 correctly, the place called Drayton, on the voad between Cosham and 

 Havant, the only one I know of bearing the name, cannot be the sta- 

 tion alluded to by Lobel, because it is six miles, or thrice the alleged 

 distance, from Portsmouth that Lobel's habitat is said by him to be ; 

 besides which, I could find neither the Polypogon nor the remains of 

 salt-works any nearer to the Drayton of our day than Farlington, 



* The following directions will enable botanists to find our two Polypogons with 

 facility. To arrive at the first station for P. monspeliensis, turn down the lane lead- 

 ing from the high road (Portsmouth and Chichester) to the Farlington water-works ; 

 cross the railway by the gate a little to the south of the works, and being now on the 

 marshes, keep about due east, till you come opposite Farlington Church, you will find 

 the plant in various places, but chiefly in and near a strip of very wet ground, covered 

 with Scirpus maritimus and other salt-maish species, amongst which the taller variety, 

 a., rises very conspicuously. To reach the second station, including the one for P. 

 littoralis, proceed a few hundred yards out of Porchester, on the road to Havant; op- 

 posite a farm standing close by the road-side, a gate opens into the meadow in ques- 

 tion, at the farther or south end of which is a line of salt pools, communicating with 

 the tide in Portsmouth Harbour, and situated about half a mile, a little west of north, 

 from Porchester Castle ; in the westernmost of these pools both the Polypogons will 

 be found growing in company. The meadow is further remarkable for a spring of 

 the finest water, which rises through the brackish soil. 



f Mr. H. Bull, of Portsmouth, in a letter to me, confirms the existence of both the 

 Polypogous in Porteea Island, and since then I have received, from Mr. Jacob, spe- 

 cimens of each from the same island, with a notice of three stations for P. monspeli- 

 ensis, in addition to those mentioned before, viz., High Grove Field ; lines at Hillsea, 

 near the highroad ; and Nine Acres, opposite Horsey Island. 



X ' Adversaria altera pars.' p. 469. 



