31 



6. Inula Helenium. This noble plant grows in a field at Stoke, near Leominster, 

 in great luxuriance, sometimes attaining the height of 7 feet. The exact site is at the 

 foot of some unusually tall poplars ; indeed so conspicuous are these poplars that they 

 serve as a guide to the spot, even from a distance of two miles. I have also seen it 

 near Knightsford Bridge, in a wood on the right hand, close adjoining the turnpike 

 road between Worcester and Bromyard. — Id. 



7. Pelargonium tricolor. In making a short cut over a stony hill (primitive sand- 

 stone, the general rock of this country) covered with low bushes, T noticed in the fissure 

 of a rock, the elegant Pelargonium tricolor in blossom. This to me was like recogniz- 

 ing an old forgotten acquaintance, of a pleasant character ; for the existence of this 

 old but elegant and delicate inhabitant of English greenhouses, had quite passed from 

 my mind ; till (scarcely raised above the stone on which it grew) a large cluster of its 

 pure white blossoms, shaded into blackish crimson, met my eye in this inhospitable re- 

 gion, and revived many associations in connection with the persons under whose care 

 I had seen it cultivated.- -James Backhouse^s Journal, part 7 : South Africa. 



8. Spontaneous appearance of Plants. Eaton mentions [the raspberry] by the name 

 of Rubus Idaeus among the native plants. It grows and spreads abundantly, so as 

 quickly to overspread a large space of ground. I have never seen it in the primitive 

 woods ; but whenever a clearing is made the raspberry appears. * * The bushes 

 are extremely numerous on every road-side and almost in every field, growing in the cor- 

 ner of the fences, springing up abundantly in ground recently cleared and" burnt over ;" 

 and invariably forming a great bush around every dead stump or neglected log. * 

 Poplars are very rarely seen in the primitive forest : but if a clearing be made, and 

 neglected for a few years, the ground will be covered with a new growth of trees, usu- 

 ally called "second growth timber," consisting almost wholly of poplars, provided the 

 land be slightly disposed to wetness. The'cause of this I cannot in anywise explain. 

 It is not confined to the case I have mentioned : it has very often been observed that 

 when forests are destroyed, they are succeeded by a spontaneous growth of plants of 

 altogether different species from those which originally occupied the ground. How 

 are they produced ? From seed, certainly : but whence comes the seed ? Has it lain 

 in the ground for uncounted ages, waiting a favourable opportunity to spring up ? I 

 cannot tell ; this is one of those mysterious things which I am not at all adequate to 

 unfold ; I can only notice the fact. — Gosse^s ' Canadian Naturalist.^ 



9. Typha latifolia. Have you ever examined any of that large patch of bull-rushes 

 (Typha latifolia) which grow in the bottom of this field ? It is difficult to get at them, 

 as it is a complete bog all around, but they are so curious that they repay the trouble 

 of obtaining them. The thick cylindrical head appears like a fine but very closely set 

 brush radiating from the axis or stalk, which it covers for about six inches. On pick- 

 ing out a lump of what we may call the bristles of this brush, we are surprised to see 

 that we have a handful of the softest down, that which before was not larger than 

 one's thumb, now, on being freed from the stalk, filling one's hand ; and the hiatus 

 made by the loss is filled up by the expansion of the remainder so completely as scarcely 

 to be perceivable. In short the whole head is composed of this very expansive down ; 

 and I am told that poor persons sometimes collect quantities of it to make beds, which 

 are said to be soft and elastic. — Id. 



10. Red and Green Snow. In the 44th No. of Taylors' ' Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History,' is the translation of a paper from Weigmann's Archiv. (Heft. i. 1840), 

 entitled "On Red and Green Snow; by the late Prof. Meyen:" from which we learn 



