I860.] RUNNEYMEAD PLANTS. 263 



clout/' was but too well established during the present year. 

 Leafy June with longer days brought no increase of temperature ; 

 but the north-east winds of July brought us abundance of chill- 

 ing, misty, vaporous blasts from the Northern Ocean, mingled 

 with the smoke of London, which rendered our atmosphere cold, 

 murky, and dismal. Consequently we enjoyed the walk over the 

 rich meadows between the station above named and Horton, 

 where the mower had now done whetting his scythe, and had 

 given place to the spreading-machine, and to the forks of the 

 brawny-limbed haymakers, both male and female. 



The most noticeable and ornamental meadow-plant in that dis- 

 trict is Geranium pratense ; its large deep purplish-blue flowers 

 were well and beautifully contrasted with the white blossoms of 

 the Queen-of-the-Meadow, as it is named in some countries, 

 Spircea Ulmaria, the officinal Valerian, Cow Parsnip, etc. etc. 

 None of these are rarities, excepting the first, and it is no rarity 

 here, but it is rare in many parts of England. 



Our next field of research was Staines common, which is more 

 like a meadow than a common. It is an extensive watery tract, 

 of a peaty soil, and a uniformly level surface — not very attractive 

 qualities to plant- seekers. 



By the stream that flows through this level grassy flat, the 

 following plants were collected, viz. Aco7'us Calamus, very plen- 

 tiful all along the verge of the streams, in the wet hollows, 

 marshy depressions, and ditches. This plant has a very extensive 

 range in the Thames valley, extending from Kingston and Hamp- 

 ton Court, certainly from Walton bridge upwards ; the writer of 

 this knows not how far through Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. 

 Butomus umbellatus was sparingly seen. The beautiful Hottonia 

 palustris abounds in a ditch by the roadside leading from Buck- 

 inghamshire to Staines. With this pretty plant were associated 

 Hydrocharis Morsus-ran(B, Sparganium ramosum, Stellaria 

 glauca, etc, 



Runneymead, very celebrated in the constitutional history of 

 England, is more famed for its political associations than for its 

 botanical productions. But this field is worth a visit if this can 

 be accomplished at no very considerable expenditure of time and 

 physical exertion. One of the largest of the beautiful meadows 

 between St. Ann's Hill and the deep and smooth-flowing Thames, 

 was literally blue with the flowers of Knautia arvensis, the largest 



