1861.] KENTISH BOTANY. 377 



which are noticed by your correspondents ; on the other^ at a 

 distance of only a few feet, there is the Coltsfoot, the Equisetum, 

 the rough tufts of Hushes, and little else beside; the special chalk 

 plants are not to be found beyond the border. Some years since, 

 M'hen pursuing some investigations on the distribution of wild 

 plants in Oxfordshire, I found equally trenchant distinctions be- 

 tween the vegetation of the oolite and that of the clay, and I 

 arrived at the conclusion that the difference of the vegetation on 

 the soils in question depended more upon the degree of moisture 

 than upon the chemical nature of the soil, though of all varieties 

 of soils those having a predominance of lime in them have the 

 most especially-marked Flora. On the other hand, many plants 

 which in this country are confined to chalky or limestone dis- 

 tricts, occur on the Continent in widely different spots. Chlora 

 perfoliata, one of the plants usually considered especially to 

 belong to the chalk, may be found in Oxfordshire on the clay ; 

 and 1 have once gathered it on the gault of Eastwear Bay, but 

 once only, whereas it is abundant on the chalk not a stone's- 

 throw from the clay. 



The presence of Scolopendrium vulyare at Eastwear Bay and at 

 Lydden Spout seems to have attracted the notice of your corre- 

 spondents (whose mask, by the way, hardly conceals their fea- 

 tures), as also it did my own. Although familiar with the plant 

 as occurring occasionally on chalk, grecnsand, and other lime- 

 stone soils, I never before saw it so close to the sea. In the 

 localities above mentioned, the plant was always seen by the pre- 

 sent writer, close by the rills of fresh-water which ooze out from 

 between the chalk and gault, while at Lydden Spout the water 

 pours out pleno rivo. 



Following the track of your correspondents, I may notice the 

 abundance of that most elegant little ^IsmtAnagal/is tenella, on the 

 oozing ground at the base of the greensand cliffs between Folke- 

 stone and Sandgate, where also Samolus Valerandi and Lavatera 

 arborea may be found — the latter an escape from gardens. At 

 the top of the cliff, by the side of the pathway leading towards 

 Sandgate, may be found the Thrift, Ai^meria vulgaris, in plenty ; 

 also Sedum acre and a white-flowered variety of Geranium rober- 

 tianum. My search after Cyperus longus was as fruitless as that 

 of your correspondents, while Newington Moor, another spot 

 eloquently described by the botanical historian of this district ^ 



N. S. VOL. V. 3 C 



