169 



as merely fortuitous, and it sensibly diminishes in frequency in all the western coun- 

 ties, nor does it reach, like L. Elatine, to any part of the sister kingdom. On the 

 continent L. spuria has apparently the same limits to the northward as with us, being 

 absent from Denmark proper, though found in the neighbouring dutchy of Holstein 

 under the same parallel as Yorkshire. As I have already remarked, L. spuria is more 

 attached to certain soils, and to tillage lands, being rarely seen beyond the limits of 

 cultivation, whilst L. Elatine I have repeatedly gathered, though sparingly, in places 

 very dissimilar and remote from ai'able ground, even on heaths and in spongy bogs, 

 by ditch-banks, &c. The Peloria form has not come under my notice in the Isle of 

 Wight, but I have gathered it in corn land near Winchester, affecting both the spe- 

 cies alike, and exactly in the way Mr. Buckman describes. It now only remains 

 that I should notice the possibility that Mr. Buckman's " intermediate stages " may 

 have resulted from cross impregnation, an accident to which plants of this natural 

 order seem peculiarly liable, witness Scrophularia, Verbascum, &c. We have a beau- 

 tiful hybrid occasionally produced in the Isle of Wight, between Linaria repens and 

 L. vulgaris ; it is therefore by no means unlikely that the same thing may happen 

 with two other species of the genus still more nearly allied. The subject is well worth 

 Mr. Buckman's investigation ; and it is to be hoped that he will favour your pages with 

 whatever conclusions he may hereafter arrive at. — Wm. Arnold Bromfield ; February 

 4, 1842. 



118. Note on ike British species of Tilia. I was extremely glad to read the very 

 interesting account of our native species of Tilia, communicated by Mr. Leighton in 

 the words of Mr. Jorden, with further remarks by the former gentleman, (Phytol. 147); 

 and they have, I think, like able counsel, made out a plain case in favour of their cli- 

 ents' claim to the rights of citizenship. Till I saw Mr. Jorden's account in your pa- 

 ges, I was disposed to believe the small-leaved lime (Tilia parvifolia) the only species 

 really indigenous to this country, never having met with the broad-leaved ones in any 

 situation where they had a perfectly wild appearance; but the distribution of the three 

 species on the continent of Europe, in conjunction with the decided testimony of Mr. 

 Jorden to their spontaneous growth in Worcestershire &c., has almost entirely, if not ab- 

 solutely, removed my previous scepticism, I must however premise, that from some 

 varieties I have observed in these trees, I am not without suspicions that Tilia parvi- 

 folia and grandifolia are the two extremities of a series, of which T. europaea is a mid- 

 dle link; but to substantiate this view of the subject would require much stronger 

 evidence than I am able to bring forward at this moment. The genus Tilia seems to 

 have its metropolis in the cooler portion of the temperate zone, a few species extend- 

 ing into the warmer parts only, where the increase of temperature is modified by hu- 

 midity of soil or elevation. Tilia parvifolia is the most northern form or species, and 

 the only one found native in Norway, Sweden, and the northern provinces of the Rus- 

 sian empire, ranging in Scandinavia to 63" 30', and in Russia to at least 60", being 

 frequent in woods about St. Petersburg. The broad-leaved species, T. europaea and 

 grandifolia, predominate in the vast forests that cover the extensive plains of central 

 and eastern Europe between 55" and 50", in Poland, Lithuania, and the more southern 

 governments of Russia, where Pallas tells us ('Flora Rossica') the small-leaved lime 

 (T. parvifolia) is rarely met with. The famous honey of Konow in Lithuania is ga- 

 thered by the bees from the blossoms of a broad-leaved lime, which is there said to 

 constitute entire forests, and is doubtless the same species as that of the bark of which 

 the Russian bast or matting is manufactured. Proceeding farther south, we find in 



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