1861.] KENTISH BOTANY. 185 



Prosperity has deserted Sandwich, and has patronized its 

 neighbour. Deal. The former town has been decaying ever 

 since it was forsaken by the sea. It is a dull place, with few 

 attractions even for the antiquary, and the town itself is not 

 very interesting to the botanist, though some of the less fre- 

 quented streets be green with vegetation. Yet a botanist might 

 spend a week very profitably in this ancient member of the 

 Cinque Ports, and might find good botanizing between Pegwell 

 Bay on the east, and Ham Ponds on the west ; and between 

 Sandown Castle and the old haven of Sandwich on the south, 

 and Ash on the north. Mine host of the Bell is a good speci- 



produce of Canary Grass is first brought to London, and from this centre it is dis- 

 persed far and wide over all the kingdom. But the cliief reason why the Grass is 

 frequent near the Metropolis is, because there are more Canary-bu-ds kept in Lon- 

 don than there are anywhere else. Thus the appearance of Canary Grass, common 

 Hemp, and Flax, are easily accounted for. 



London is the great mart of the whole world ; the productions of all the earth 

 reach this great city. It is the great centre, or type, as some would say, of vegetable 

 distribution. London is certainly tlie centre from which many of cm- novel plants 

 hare emanated or radiated, but it is not the field where they have been much cul- 

 tivated. The sweepings, the refuse, the rejectamenta of our granaries, seed-ware- 

 houses, the shakings of sacks, the litter of stables, all contain seeds from distant 

 parts of the world, some more, some less. These find a place in the dust-bins, 

 the dung-pits, and other more unsavoury localities ; ultimately tliey are all con- 

 veyed to the country in the manm-e, or they are conveyed by, and in, tlie sewage 

 to the river, where some of them probably perish ; a remnant is dredged up in the 

 sand and mud, and thus are deposited in waste places till these are used for more 

 profitable purposes ; and the seeds or some of them grow, some for one season, 

 some for several. 



Commercial intercourse is the chief agency now in operation, disturbing the law 

 of the distribution of plants, and sometimes they disturb and discomfort the minds 

 of the inventors themselves, who have been at much pains in estabHshing the laws 

 of Nature, which Nature, Hke an ungrateful hussy as she is, obstuiately refuses 

 to obey. 



After the strangers have arrived, cultivation plays a most important part in their 

 preservation ; but it has usually less to do with their introduction than other 

 causes have. Winds, tides, currents, animals, birds especially, have obtained much 

 credit for increasing the vegetative wealth of countries ; but it is to the operations 

 of human agency, to commercial intercourse, that we are most indebted for the in- 

 creased and stni increasmg numbers of our plants. 



When our London drainage has been completed, and when a system for the dis- 

 tribution of the sewage of the Metropohs has been organized, then the botanist 

 may expect a rich harvest of plants from all parts of the earth. Many of them 

 doubtless will perish ; but some will remain to astonish the simple natives who 

 believe in the marvellous and overlook and despise causes that are at work before 

 their eyes. 



VOL. V. i\.S. 2 B 



