443 



when a child, gathering it, with other wild flowers, far distant from 

 houses, both in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, but not so frequent as 

 if. is in this neighbourhood. 



Another of the plants alluded to by Mr. Lees is Saponaria officina- 

 lis (known here as "farewell summer"). I can refer to beds of it as 

 much as eight or ten feet long by four or six feet wide, in some places 

 approaching to the double form [jiore pleno) ; in fact, it is so very 

 common in some districts here, that it is hardly thought worthy of a 

 place in a garden, the reason being it is such a common jiower . 



In addition to the plants already mentioned, permit me to make a 

 claim for the birthright of a universal favourite with old or young, 

 male or female, botanist, florist, or what not : none can behold it with- 

 out pleasure : — 



" Ah'eady now the snowdrop dares appear, 

 The first pale blossom of the unripen'd year." 



" Earliest Imd that decks the garden, 

 Fairest of the fragrant race. 

 First-born child of vernal Flora, 

 Seeking wild thy lowly place. 

 White-robed flow'r, in lonely beauty 

 Eising from a wintry bed. 

 Chilling winds and blasts ungenial 

 Rudely threat'ning round thy head." 



If distance from houses, gardens, or brooks is required to establish 

 a claim for aboriginal plants, I can produce the most decisive proofs. 

 It is found in fields on the crest of a spur of the mountain (which 

 separates two valleys), about a mile in length, and at the upper end, 

 where it adjoins the mountain, is at least a mile in width from rivulet 

 to rivulet. The only houses on the hill are a farm-house, at least 

 half a mile below the fields where they are found, and one rather 

 nearer, built about twenty-five years ago, on the opposite declivity. 

 Formerly there was a cottage about half way between the farm-house 

 and the locality. One of the fields abuts upon a wood that has never 

 yet been brought into cultivation. So much for one locality. Another 

 is the hedge-bank of a country lane, the nearest cottage not within a 

 quarter of a mile, and helow it. I have personally known it intro- 

 duced into gardens from its native localities. If the above evidence 

 is not suflficient to establish the native habitation of a plant, I know 

 not what would be required. James Bladon. 



Pont-y-Pool, December, 1851. 



