98 



Having engaged to accompany my friend Mr. Buckman, of Chelten- 

 ham, in a botanical exploration of the Cotswold Hills, in the second 

 week of September last, we found ourselves on the evening of the third 

 day at the base of the precipice of Cleeve Cloud, on our return. We 

 had just emerged from a rocky wood, where we had been fortunate 

 enough to find Rubus saxatilis in fine fruit, Convallaria Polygonatum, 

 also in fruit, and some other rarities ; and were about at once to turn 

 our steps homeward, when I noticed a thick beech-wood about two 

 miles farther on, and proposed advancing to it. My friend, who had 

 been on his legs ever since the early morn, for we had travelled far 

 and long, rather quailed at this proposition, urging the necessity of 

 recruiting the outer man before undertaking further enterprizes, but 

 yielded the point on my suggesting to him that we might possibly find 

 Monotropa Hypopitys, although he said he had never heard of its 

 growing there. On arriving at our ground we scaled a stone wall, 

 and entered such a "twilight grove" as I have seldom seen. It form- 

 ed indeed a tent of the densest foliage, consisting almost exclusively 

 of beeches ; and as evening was rapidly approaching, was really so 

 dark that we could scarcely at first see our way to find anything. 



After a little inspection my friend showed me several fine specimens 

 of Epipactis grandiflora, which only redoubled my anxiety to find 

 the Monotropa, but we searched for some time in vain. At last we 

 detected a stunted specimen, then several others, and finally, where a 

 tree had been felled, there was a luxuriant growth of thirty or forty all 

 together. I deemed this a favourable opportunity to ascertain, if pos- 

 sible, whether Monotropa were really parasitical, as suggested by Mr. 

 Luxford, (Phytol. 43). Mr. L. states that he could not satisfy him- 

 self on this point; and indeed Sir James Smith remarks in his 

 * English Flora,' that he " could never find it truly parasitical, any 

 more than Mr. Graves, though the uniform pallid hue of the plant in- 

 dicates it to be so."* I was accordingly careful to get up several 

 roots deep enough fi-om among the dead fungoid mass of beech-leaves 

 that thickly matted the ground. 



On commencing my investigation at home, I found considerable 

 difficulty in removing the ir.atted mass of soil around the base of my 

 plants ; and in attempting to trace the connection of the tapering base 

 of the succulent stem therewith, in spite of all my care, several stems 

 broke off, and I was foiled in my efforts, although I found the fibres 

 of the beech-roots inextricably connected with this compact brown 



* ' English Flora,' ii. 250. 



