63 



that almost everywhere in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire where 

 the Italian black poplar is planted, that in a few years the boughs of 

 the trees become loaded with misletoe, far more so indeed than upon 

 apple-trees, upon which it is common enough in this county and 

 Herefordshire. Yet strange to say, on the native Populus nigra, 

 though I have examined every tree I came near for a long time, yet 

 I have never observed the misletoe growing there in a single instance. 



But I have perhaps strayed a little from the point I commenced 

 this paper with, the stars, that might as well be put out as permitted 

 to shine ! Surely it is capricious and inconsistent to put the same 

 mark against a columbine, a medlar, and a turnip, and pass over the 

 wall-flower and Arabis turrita without any mark at all. There is also 

 a great want of exactness in making a similar character positive in 

 one case, as in the common elm, and only interrogatory in another, 

 as Populus canescens and nigra, which doubtfully are said to be 

 " scarcely indigenous." I think Dr. Brorafield's double dagger {%) 

 might well be employed to stab plants the certain derivatives of a 

 garden, while a single dagger (f) might be given to those known as 

 introduced, but naturalized for a long time, as Teucrium Chamaedrys, 

 Linaria Cymbalaria, &c. Some very dubious cases might be staned, 

 but not against evidence, as in the cases of the columbine and Sedum 

 album. 



In a descriptive flora intended for students and neophytes, who of 

 course want information on all specimens they may find, I really 

 think that such plants as Lilium Martagon, Maianthemum bifolium, 

 Narcissus incomparabilis, and many others apparently naturalized in 

 Britain, ought not to be slurred over undescribed, under the plea that 

 the author or authors do not believe them to be indigenous, or that 

 they have " no right to be admitted into our flora." What in fact 

 gives the right, but the occurrence of the plant, and if it docs occur, 

 come from where it may it ought to be catalogued and described. In 

 the case of the Anacharis alsinastrum, though probably enough origi- 

 nally an American plant, this is allowed without any demur. Where 

 indeed should the line be drawn ? Surely occurring plants deserve 

 commemoration. In one place the authors of the ' British Flora ' 

 assert that our plants are all derived from the continent, which, if the 

 Europeean continent be meant, requires some qualification. But 

 allowing this for a great portion of our flora, let us take Tulipa syl- 

 vestris for instance, an inhabitant mostly of chalk-pits and quarries 

 (and which, by the bye, has no star), and considering it as an intro- 

 duction, on what principle is that to be considered to have a right to 



