244 KENTISH BOTANY. [AugUSt," 



In a cultivated part of the downs, opposite to Dover Castle on 

 the east, plenty of Linaria spuria, Calamintha Acinos, and Lo- 

 lium multiflorum was growing ; also Sinapis nigra and S. alba, 

 the former very plentiful, and the latter not scarce. This is a 

 rare plant in Kent, though extremely abundant in Surrey. Here 

 Diplotaxis muralis was profusely distributed all over the culti- 

 vated parts of these hills. 



We went round the external rampart, crossing the meadow 

 between the Deal road and the Castle, and from this elevation, 

 with the Castle on, the left and the town before us and on our 

 right, we had a most satisfactory and very pleasing \\&w of this 

 charmingly situated ancient seaport. 



Dover is smigly ensconced in one of the deepest combs of the 

 south-eastern downs. This term ' comb ' is almost peculiar to the 

 chalk formation of the south of England, and always signifies a 

 more or less deep depression stretching into the hills at a right 

 angle, or forming some angle with the main ridge ivhich indi- 

 cates the direction of these remarkable elevations. 



The comb at the bottom of which Dover is situated, may be 

 compared to a basin with about a fourth part of its circum- 

 scribing sides broken off, and this broken-off part may represent 



where the common turf is chiefly formed of BracJii/podium pinnatum and Festuca 

 ovina ; but in tliese parts the Wallflower does not grow as it grows between St. 

 Margaret's and Dover. 



The other plant to be contrasted with the Wallflower is MattMola incana, 

 which is recorded as having been found in only two places in England, viz. 

 near Hastings, Sussex, and in the Isle of Wight ; yet tliis rare plant, found in 

 only two localities, is called native, or a denizen, which may be whichever you 

 please, gentle or uncapricious reader ! — and the Wallflower, for which hundreds 

 of localities could readily be furnished, is branded as a certainly introduced plant 

 or ahen ! ! ! (? i - v' </ <• ../',.' 



It will be, or it may be, alleged that the Wallflower, which abounds on the 

 downs, at tlie verge of thecliif near the South Foreland and Dover, came originally 

 from the small gardens of the coastguard men and from the Castle. This allega- 

 tion is far from improbable ; but is it not also probable that the Stock in the Isle 

 of Wight came also from the gardens of the fisliermen about Freshwater ? Ad- 

 mitting that these threw away the old stems of the plants, — which is the common 

 practice, — a stiff breeze from the north-east would easily blow them along the downs 

 and over the cliff. Among the rejectamenta of Freshwater's httle bay, or cove, I 

 found stems and fruit of Lavatera arhorea, a plant which is common in the gar- 

 dens of Freshwater. It is not so common however as the Stock is, and the conse- 

 quence may have been that the latter grows on tlie cliffs of the Isle of Wight, 

 wlnle the former is unknown in the Isle except as a garden plant! 



