338 KENTISH BOTANY. [November, 



have never happily been proved by aggressive attacks. They 

 however have their botanical uses, in marking off the coast into 

 portions of moderate dimensions, and by their help localities are 

 definitely described. Between Sandgate and Sandgate castle 

 there is a pretty considerable portion of the raised beach well 

 covered with grassy turf. Here were seen large forms of Tri- 

 folium striatum, and still larger examples of T. ornithopodioides. 

 In most parts the latter is only a very diminutive plant ; here it 

 is at least a foot long. We have seen cultivated specimens as 

 large as these, but we never saw the wild plant so large as those 

 we collected at Sandgate. At the village of Sandgate we ob- 

 served Circaa lutetiana not an uncommon species, but this was 

 the first we met with it since setting out on our present botanical 

 travels. 



From Sandgate we ascended the cliff to Shorne, and along the 

 brow of the hill, opposite the barracks and artillery-ground, we 

 collected enormously large specimens of Trifolium subterraneum. 

 These were at least three feet long, with stems not quite so thick 

 as a goose-quill, but quite as thick as strong pack-thread. The 

 plant was still growing ; it had fruit at one end and flowers at 

 the other ; and if left long enough, and if the weather had been 

 favourable, it might have rivalled the length of the Saryassum, 

 the weed of the Gulf-stream, or in plainer terms, it might have 

 gone forward from Shornecliff to Hythe, if it had met with no 

 interruptions or accidents by the way. 



At Seabrooke we met with our first and sole botanical disap- 

 pointment, which was borne with considerable equanimity and 

 firmness, even though our success on this our last day's botani- 

 zing had not been very decided. 



We had long cherished the idea of seeing Cyperus longus, one 

 of the rarest ornaments of Flora's brow, in the county of Kent. 

 > Seabrooke, its '^ unpromising wari-en-hills," Whiting Brooks with 

 its " black boggy track," were all reached and satisfactorily iden- 

 tified. The graphic description of this district given by the re- 

 verend author of the ' Botany of South Kent/ had been read, re- 

 read, considered, and mentally digested so much and so intensely, 

 that we could then have repeated it from beginning to end, long 

 though it be, without missing a word, a stop, or a hyphen. We 

 were now within reach of realizing our hopes of acquiring a trea- 

 sure so long coveted and so much valued. 



