i860.] SPRING FLOWERS OF THE SOUTH OP EUROPE. 291 



or hedge -, only in irrigated meadows and by the sides of streams. 

 Our common Symphytum, abounds, and so does the common Po- 

 lygala ; and, best of all, the Blackthorn and the Whitethorn are 

 as much at home in their hedges and thickets as in ours. Now, 

 however, I am at the end of the list. I do not believe I have 

 omitted anything of importance. On the other hand, mark the 

 catalogue of our spring plants which (except in the mountains, 

 or iu some very peculiar localities) do not grow in the southern 

 countries of Europe. 



Of wood plants they have neither our Wood Anemone {A. ne- 

 morosa), nor our Wood Sorrel {Oxalis Acetosella) , nor our Wood- 

 ruff {Asperula odorata), nor our Primrose [Primula vulgaris), 

 nor our Hyacinth [Endymion nutans), nor our Lily-of-the-valley 

 [Convallaria majalis), nor the graceful Adoxa Moschatellina, nor 

 the beautiful Allium ursinum. Of meadow plants they want the 

 Cowslip [Primula veris),i\ie Daffodil [Narcissus Pseudo-7iarcissus) , 

 the Marsh Marigold [Caltha palustris), and both our early Or- 

 chides, 0. mascula and 0. Morio. Of the plants which adorn 

 our hedges and banks, they have neither the Wood Violet [V. 

 camna, or V. sylvatica), the wild Strawberry [Fragaria vesca), 

 the delicate Ranunculus auricomus, the elegant white Potentilla 

 Fragariastrum, the starry Stellaria Holostea, the fragrant Ground- 

 ivy [Nepeta Glechoma) , the cheerful Mercurialis perennis, nor the 

 bright-eyed Germander Speedwell [Veronica Cham(sd7^ys) . There 

 are but few of our water plants which floM^er in spring, but they 

 want the loveliest of these, Hottonia palustris. Of early heath 

 plants they have neither our Bilberry [Vaccinium Myrtillus), nor 

 our brightly coloured Pedicularis sylvatica. Among flowering 

 trees they have not at all, or but rarely, either the Crab-apple 

 [Pyrus Malus) or the splendid White Beam-tree of our chalk-hills, 

 the Pyrus Aria. A still greater deficiency is the absence of the 

 two plants which by their masses of deep yellow, convert many 

 of our spring landscapes into the likeness of Turner^s pictures — 

 the Furze [Ulex europ(Bus) and Broom [Sarothamnus scoparius). 

 The former they do not possess at all, the latter nowhere in the 

 plains, except occasionally about the roots of the mountain ranges. 



It will be said, if they have not these plants, they have equiva- 

 lents : and this is true, but the equivalents are seldom equally 

 beautiful, and scarcely ever so abundant and so universal. The 

 case of the Anemones is one of the most favourable which can be 



