130 



Hyacinthus racemosus 



Epilobium anguslifoliam 



Daphne Mezereum 



Saxifraga hypnoides 



Saxifraga urabrosa?* 



Spiraea salicifolia 



Aquilegia vulgaris 



Trollius Europseus 



Fumaria solida 



Lathyvns latifolius, &c. 

 The foregoing list might readily be enlarged to a much greater extent; 

 and I have often thought it might not be uninteresting to pursue the 

 subject, and make out a more full and complete catalogue. Who that 

 has any love at all for plants would see any one of the above for the 

 first time in a wild state and not wish to dig up a root for his garden? 

 In the olden time these species and the like appeared worthy of cul- 

 tivation, and so were cultivated. And the consequence is, that they 

 have in our eye lost, to a great degree, that character for rarity which 

 they possessed as wild plants, from the circumstance of their being so 

 very familiar to us in the garden. 



W. T. Bree. 



AUesley Rectory, March 24, 1851. 



* I fix against this plant a mart of doubt, because after much investigation and 

 inquiry, and in spite of all that has been written on the subject, I feel hardly pre- 

 pared to admit its claim as an undoubted native. Amid the countless varieties of 

 Robertsonian Saxifragae which occur in such astonishing profusion on the Kerry 

 mountains, I never could see one which coincided with the London pride of our gar- 

 dens. I have seen it naturalized, as it were, in shrubberies and plantations near 

 gentlemens' seats in Ireland, but never could meet with it on the mountains. With 

 respect to the recorded Yorlishire habitat for Saxifraga umbrosa, Hessleton Gill, T 

 visited that spot a good many years ago, chiefly for the express purpose of gratifying 

 my eyes with the sight of Saxifraga umbrosa growing wild ; and I brought plants of 

 it away with me, which I have cultivated ever since. The locality itself, I admit, is 

 wild to one's heart's content, and far enough away from house or garden. But after 

 all there are reasons (which il might be tedious to stale) which induce me, however 

 reluctantly, to suspect that Saxifraga umbrosa may not be a genuine native, even in 

 the above apparently truly-wild locality. 



