I860.] BOTANICAL SKETCHES FROM NORTH WALES. 41 



Asplenium Ruta-mw^aria. Walls^ Lamer House. 



Phyllitis Scolopendrium. Mackery End, Brockett. 



Ceterach officinarum. On an old brick wall in the adjoining 



parish of Harpenden. 

 Ophioglossum vulgatum. Pastures in several places. 



BOTANICAL SKETCHES. 

 Botanical Sketches from North Wales. By a Correspondent. 



As the way or ways to North Wales are about as well known 

 as the way to the ' Elephant and Castle ' or the ' Angel/ Islington, 

 space need not be filled with descriptions of routes which are 

 now as well trodden as the road to Bath. 



The traveller, or tourist, or botanist, may enter the Principa- 

 lity either by the Llangollen-road station, on the Shrewsbury 

 and Chester line, or by the ancient city of Chester, which is now 

 reachable by three lines, — the London and North-western, the 

 Great Northern, and the Great Western. 



Some botanists might prefer to go on by rail as far as Bangor 

 or Carnarvon, the nearest stations to the grand botanizing 

 grounds of Llanberis, Nant Francon, the Great Glyder, Twll Du, 

 and Snowdon. The present historian of Welsh Botany began 

 at the Llangollen-road station, and the following is a brief ac- 

 count of what he saw. 



My botanizing in Wales this season (1859) began on the 20th 

 of June, when I was within view of the Castel Dinas Bran and 

 the Eglwyseg Hills, 



Here the aspect of the entire country within sight, including 

 the vale of Llangollen and the mountains on either side of the 

 Dee, is totally different from the scenery of England. The lofty, 

 steep, craggy mountains, the deep vale, the rocky channel of the 

 impetuous river, remind the visitor that he is no longer in rich, 

 green, comfortable England. In the vegetation there is nothing 

 to mark this transition. 



One of the commonest plants on the stone walls and on the 

 waste spots on the road leading to Llangollen town is the Weld, 

 or Dyer's-weed (Reseda Luteola). 



This plant, which abounds about Llangollen, is not very com- 

 mon as the traveller advances up the vale of the Dee. 



N. S. VOL. IV. <^ 



