310 soNCHus PALUsTRis. [Octobsr, 



Sonchus palustris. 



A correspondent furnishes the following notice of an unre- 

 corded locality for the above-mentioned rare species. 



This fine plant, one of the rarest of the Composite, and until 

 very recently believed to be extinct in the neighbourhood of 

 London, was observed in great abundance last July by Mr. J. S. 

 Mill, well known to the readers of the ' Phytologist' as one of 

 the most successful investigators of the localities of the rarer 

 British species. 



This tallest of the Sonchi is described in Gerarde, p. 294, 

 under the name of Sonchus arborescens alter ; and by Clusius, 

 p. cxlvii., Sonchus Icevior altissimus ; also, in CI. Stirpes Pannon., 

 under the sarae name. This excellent botanist localizes the 

 plant thus : — " Invenitur in paludosis, salicetis et harundinetis, 

 juxta piscinas et stagnantes aquas supra Badani Austrice," etc. 

 The place of growth is thus given by Parkinson, Theat. Bot. 

 p. 809 : — " It groweth among Willowes and Reedes, and yet 

 I have here inserted it for the tallness thereof." Ray localizes 

 it thus : — '•' Ad ripas Thamesis fluvii, non procul Greenvico, et 

 circa Blachwallj" The late Mr. Luxford found this plant not 

 far from Blackwall, on the Essex side of the river ; but though 

 his locality was visited, the plant was not found. There is a 

 specimen in the Linnsean herbarium (only a fragmentary one), 

 collected by Mr. Joseph Woods and Mr. Kippist about thirty 

 years ago, between Deptford and Greenwich, in an osier-holt. 

 Since that period to the present, no example of the plant has 

 been seen near London, with the exception of a solitary speci- 

 men growing in the Medway at Aylesford, below Maidstone, 

 which was observed by a party of botanists who passed that way 

 in going to Boxley, in 1857. 



It will gratify all lovers of British plants to hear that they 

 may now, at very little expenditure of time and money, pro- 

 cure for their respective herbaria a good supply of specimens of 

 this noble plant. 



The locality is within half an hour's journey from the Me- 

 tropolis. 



About two years ago, the readers of the ' Phytologist' were 

 agreeably surprised by the announcement of an unrecorded sta- 

 tion for Leucojum oestivum. (See 'Phytologist,' n.s. vol. ii. p. 510.) 



