I860.] GENTIANA. PJNEUMONANTHE. 331 



" Black was the root, but milky-white the flower 5 

 Moly the name, to mortals hard to find," etc. 



In Cole's Dictionary, he says Moly is the Rue_, or Herb- 

 Grace ; and Webster says it is wild Garlick. But what do the 

 modern botanists say about it? S. B. 



GENTIANA PNEUMONANTHE. 



A Visit to the recently recorded SuT'rey Locality for Gentiana 

 Pneumonanthe. 



(From a Correspondent^ 



Several years ago, I made a fruitless effort to obtain this rare 

 plant. This was long before the days of railway travelling, 

 whereby botany has been ^' made easy." 



In those days, or in that remote period, after a walk of from 

 fifteen to twenty miles, I found myself in the then, as now, re- 

 tired village of Byfleet. I had spent rather too much of my 

 time in botanizing between Ockham, near Hipley, and the 

 " Hut," a little roadside inn, which was a hut, and no more, 

 about thirty-five years ago, as those who knew the Guildford 

 and Portsmouth road at that period well know. The hut is now, 

 and was then (twenty years ago), a place where tolerable accom- 

 modation and frugal fare might be had, and at this latter visit it 

 was a hut only in name. Here I was directed through the wood 

 and across the meadows to Byfleet, in my way to Walton-on- 

 the-Thames, so called to distinguish it from another Walton, 

 viz. that on the hill, in the hilly^ southern part of the county of 

 Surrey. 



It was pitchy dark ere I reached Byfleet, and further pro- 

 gress was both unprofitable and uncomfortable. It was neces- 

 sary to act on the Horatian maxim, " uhi tempestas rapit deferor 

 hospes." The night compelled me to seek shelter as well as 

 refreshment and rest. I will not, as one of our most ancient 

 local botanists did, and as some of our modern brethren still do, 

 describe either the hostelry or its hospitalities. Botanists can 

 subsist on common and even scanty fare. Though they are 

 liable to the cravings of appetite, like other mortals, the health- 

 ful nature of their pursuit, and the quiet, even tenour of their 



