1831.] KENTTSH BOTANY. 243 



his feelings, if he have any feelings, or any sympathy with the 

 beautiful and the picturesque. 



We were looking for plants, not for sublime scenery ; and our 

 description, like our subject, ought to be of a simple character ; 

 therefore no attempt is made to describe scenes which made a 

 very deep impression on our feelings, and which will never be 

 forgotten. They may be more durable than the stupendous cliffs 

 themselves, which have existed nobody but the geologist knows 

 for how many myriads of ages. Our business was to observe and 

 chronicle humbler objects. 



On these bare lofty hills, exposed to every wind that blows, we 

 observed Spircea FiUpendula, Erigeron acris, Silene nutans, /3, 

 the variety which grows about these coasts ; also Onopordum 

 Acanthium, quite at home, but not so stately as in gardens, where 

 it is dignified with the name of Scotch Thistle, probably because 

 it does not grow in Scotland ; also Carlina vulgaris and Carduus 

 acaulis were there, though mostly in an incipient condition. 

 Further on Cheiranthus Cheiri became quite a common plant, 

 neither on rocks nor on walls, for there are no rocks above the 

 surface, nor walls on these bleak downs, yet it appeared to be well 

 satisfied with its situation, and throve and increased prodigiously, 

 to the great chagrin of botanical geographers, who obstinately, if 

 not maliciously, confine its locality to strictly artificial erections, 

 " almost all its habitats on walls and buildings'^ ! ! ! 



The clifis near Dover may be called artificial, for every portion 

 of the earth is the work of the Almighty artificer, though they 

 do not owe their being to human agency. This plant, the Wall- 

 flower, has taken a fancy to the Castle Hill, and spreads profusely 

 among the rank growth of Thistles, Helminthias, and other coarse 

 plants. Part at least of this huge rampart may be artificial, in the 

 general and restricted sense of this term, but even here the Cheir- 

 anthus, if not native, is certainly spontaneous."^ 



* If the area of the two plants Cheiranthus Cheiri and Matthiola incana be con- 

 trasted, it will be seen that the Wallflower has what may be called a general distri- 

 bution, or it i3 found in most counties of England and Scotland. In the former 

 the county of Cheshire ought to be added, for it grows on the rock on which 

 Beeston Castle is bviUt (see ' Phy tologist ' for January 1860, p. 6), and it grows on 

 rocks in other parts of the island, from the Gloucester Avon to the banks of the 

 fair Tay. Between the South Foreland and Dover Castle it grows on the ground : 

 in this tract there are neither rocks nor old walls. It is true that the little soil of 

 the South Downs lies on the chalk rock, but so does the soil of the North Downs, 



