137 



R. carpinifolius, and others, besides a treasure among the Cryptoga- 

 mic tribes. But unfortunately the estate changed hands, and a new- 

 proprietor marked the grove for destruction, ruthlessly levelling cop- 

 pices and all sheltering hedges, whether for animals or plants. I 

 went the following year after the breaking up of the soil of the grove, 

 and one of my cherished localities was choked up with a thick yard- 

 high growth of rank Atriplicese, all of two species, A. patula, var. 

 microsperma, and A. erecta. So the country changes year after year, 

 and progression effaces the haunts and footsteps of our fathers, with 

 their olden plants, and we are compelled to observe what new arrange- 

 ments and altered cultivation bring to light. Man's operations have 

 always a weedy mark inscribed upon them, as in North America the 

 Indians are said to have called Plantago major the " Englishman's 

 foot," from its always appearing in places where the colonists had 

 encamped. So Sir Charles Lyell mentions observing the common 

 camomile as a weed in Ohio ; and Sir T. Mitchell has stated that 

 wherever a sheep or cattle station is established in Australia, the 

 horehound (but qucere white or black ?) is sure to spring up in great 

 abundance. ^ 



I have thus given a few records of the springing up of plants upon 

 broken-up soil and artificially-made ground, which, if not bearing 

 upon the views of those botanists interested only about the differences 

 of species, may not be without their utility to general observers, and 

 recall similar appearances they may have witnessed. A single fact of 

 the kind may seem trifling in itself, but in combination with others it 

 may serve purposes to the botanical historian not at first obvious, and 

 illustrate the workings of Nature in recurring vegetable changes. 



Edwin Lees. 



Cedar Terrace, Henwick, Worcester, 

 March 28, 1851. 



Notice of the ' Botanical Gazette,"" No. 28, April, 1851. 



This number contains two original communications, intituled as 

 under: — 



' Three Weeks' Kamble among the Clova and Braemar Mountains, 

 in the Summer of 1850. By James Backhouse, Jun.' 



' On a Monstrosity of Daucus Carota. By Frederick Townshend, 

 Esq.' 



The first of these papers is highly interesting, and of the same 

 Vol. TV. T 



