108 FAVEKSHAM PLANTS. [April, 



look for and collect a few specimens for whicli Faversham is ce- 

 lebrated. 



It is believed that tlie readers of the ' Phytologist ' will ex- 

 cuse this now oftener than the thrice-told tale about the plants 

 of Faversham : first, because all who read this may not have the I 

 works of Jacobs and Cowell on their shelves ; secondly, the pre- 

 sent story Avill be only a short one -, thirdly and lastly, because 

 we have something to tell them which was never printed before. 

 The station is on the right-hand side, or on the west of the 

 town, and consequently, in going to the creek, where the rarest 

 of Kentish or even of English plants grow, viz. Peucedanum offici- 

 nale, the traveller has to pass through the town ; and future tourists 

 are recommended to turn aside into the churchyard, as we did, 

 and if they are not botanists, they may spend a half-hour not 

 unprofitably in "meditating among the tombs." Our object was 

 not this; for examples enough of the ravages and trophies of 

 time and of death are obtainable without incurring the expense 

 of a journey to so distant a place as Faversham. We went to bo- 

 tanize, and we did so, energetically and successfully. If there 

 be two species of Parietaria, viz. P. diffusa and P. erecta, they 

 are surely to be seen in Kent. Probably they grow on these 

 ancient walls or spread over the contiguous rich mould of the 

 churchyard. But this plant or these plants abounded in several 

 parts of the coast subsequently visited, and many examples were 

 looked at and compared, but with no definite or satisfactory re- 

 sults. 



The Pellitory, though mural in the interior of our island, is 

 not so in Kent. It grows far from towns and from houses, 

 sometimes on the chalk rock or on tlie chalk debr'is, but it is 

 quite as common on the rich marly soil of the uudercliffs and 

 even on the level ground, but as remote as possible from dwellings 

 and ruins, its common habitat in the inland parts of the country. 



Ci'ejns biennis we did not observe about the churchyard. It is 

 entered in Cowell's list, and it may be there, though we did not 

 see it; but we saw plenty of common or garden Parsley, Snap- 

 dragon, and blue Toad-flax [Antirrhinum purpureum) ; these, with 

 Festuca myurus, or F. pseudo-myurus, or F. bromoides, Hiera- 

 cium Pilosella, Veronica arvensis, Erigeron acris, and such-like, 

 formed the staple of the mural (wall) plants of Faversham church- 

 yard. 



