1861.] VALERIANA CALCITRAPA. 117 



drew his inspiration. As I do not mean to make scientific capital 

 by trenching on the informer's trade, I will turn to a more con- 

 genial topic, and I intend to claim for the late Mr. Forster the 

 honour (if there be any, hanging at the end of so slender a thread 

 or modicum of information) of being the original discoverer of 

 this plant as a spontaneous British production. If the late above- 

 named amiable botanist was not the first who observed it growing 

 wild in several places as before said, he was the first to record its 

 growth where it is still found. 



In vol. i. of the old series of the ' Phytologist,' and not in vol. 

 iii. as quoted in the ' Cybele,^ and on the 648th and 649th pages, 

 there is a note from the real Simon Pure, revealing the history 

 of the distribution of Centranthus Calcitrapa in the following, 

 quoted from the ' Phytologist,' as before stated : — 



" It is now fifty, if not sixty, years since [Mem. the author of 

 this note dated it 6th June, 1843) I first saw this plant on a 

 wall at Eltham, where it was well known to the London botanists, 

 who, I believe, always thought it had escaped from Sherard's 

 garden, and it was therefore considered a naturalized plant, etc. 

 We also used at the same to find it on the wall of a garden at 

 Enfield, in Middlesex, which had formerly been that of Dr, 

 Uvedale.^^ If fifty years be subtracted from 1843, the remainder, 

 according to Cocker, will be 1793, and if the longer period, viz. 

 sixty years, be taken from the date when the above-quoted note 

 was written, the remainder will be 1783. Or if we take the 

 mean period, the result will be 1788 ; and if we add the seventeen 

 years which have elapsed since June, 1843, we have about seventy 

 years as the historic period of this plant as a naturalized species 

 in England. 



In casting my eye over the geographical range of Centranthus 

 Calcitrapa I find that it is known in the middle and south of 

 Europe, and also in the Balearian Isles ! 



It is very devoutly to be wished that another Balearic plant, 

 viz. Arenaria balearica, may meet with as great success as this 

 tiny Valerian, — that she may spread herself about and occupy as 

 many stations, and, above all, that she may have her humble 

 claims not only admitted but defended by as many celebrated 

 and generous botanists as have patronized her modest compa- 

 triot, is the humble wish of one of Flora's devoted admirers. 



