62 



to Britain, and recorded it in the ' Philosophical Magazine ' under the name of Ajax 

 lobularis. It is a highly ornameutal species, a free flowerer, and increases readily. 

 I think it may fairly he considered a native plant, ( unless, indeed, it should he held 

 to have been introduced by the Romans ), for it is not likely that it should have been 

 the outcast of a garden, being, as I believe, so little, if at all, known in the gardens, 

 till of late years distributed by me among various private friends and public institu- 

 tions, to all of whom it appears to have been previously unknown. The plant comes 

 true from seed ; the seedlings which I have raised differing very slightly, if at all, 

 from the parent. — Id. 



24. Lilium Martagon. This plant occurs in tolerable plenty near the village of 

 Sampford, in this county [Essex], on the road from Great Bardfield to Walden. This 

 locality was pointed out to me last May, by my relative Mr. R. M. Smith of Great 

 Bardfield, who has known of it for above twenty years. The spot is a high bank, 

 sprinkled with low bushes, on the side of a lane leading from the village eastward to 

 some unexplored part of the county. From the situation I cannot at all suppose that 

 the plant can be an escape from any garden. When I visited the spot there were a 

 considerable number of plants, chiefly growing on the outsides of the clumps of bushes, 

 but sometimes quite out in the grass. I do not see any mention of this locality in Ray's 

 list of the rare plants of Essex, in Camden's Britannia, edit. 1695. — Edward Douhle- 

 day ; Epping , August 12, 1841. 



25. Lilium Martagon. I think I never shall forget the extreme pleasure I expe- 

 rienced when, in 1826, 1 first saw this beautiful plant growing in a little coppice to the 

 right of the lane leading from Mickleham to Headley, in Surrey. The coppice was 

 overshadowed by oak trees of considerable size, and the underwood had been cut dur- 

 ing the previous year, so that the tall racemes of the lily stood up nobly and conspicu- 

 ously above the brushwood, and it would have been difficult for any passing observer 

 not to have noticed them. — Edward Newman ; August 13, 1841. 



[At the end of June, 1840, in a delightful excursion which we believe some of the 

 party will not soon forget, we had the gratification of seeing Lilium Martagon grow- 

 ing in the greatest profusion in the station last mentioned. In some parts of the cop- 

 pice the plants were so crowded that the flowers produced a perfect blaze of the richest 

 colour among the young trees. — Edl\ 



26. Note on British Orchidacece. From the commencement of the Birmingham 

 Garden we have cultivated, with tolerable success, such of the British Orchidaceae as 

 we could obtain, and have preserved some species for several years without being obli- 

 ged to procure a fresh supply from their native places of growth. They are grown in 

 pots placed with our alpine plants ; and about six years ago I was agreeably surprised 

 at seeing some self-sown seedlings in several of the pots with the alpine plants, some of 

 them being very small, and evidently seedlings of that year, others were much stronger. 

 Of plants so obtained we have flowered several fine specimens every season for the last 

 three years ; some of them were permitted to flower where they came up, others were 

 transplanted singly into pots, and all flowered equally well. They mostly are to be 

 found with such alpine plants as have leaves covering the pots in winter in a living 

 state, so as to ward off a portion of the rain, or in pots where the plants have a mass of 

 roots to answer the same purpose, by absorption of the superabundant moisture. The 

 species which have flowered from self-sown plants are Gymnadenia conopsea, Orchis 

 maculata and O. latifolia, — the latter species being most abundant. As far as I can 

 ascertain they flower the third year after their appearance in a seedling state. — David 

 Cameron; Botanic Garden, Birmingham, August 15, 1841. 



