482 



Sempervivum tectorum. 



How comes this plant in all our floras ? I never saw a British spe- 

 cimen, recent or dried, and never met with a botanist who had that 

 pleasure. — Querist. 



[It is one of those tirae-hallowed errors which continue to exist in 

 the face of fact. The Sempervivum is one of those few hardy plants 

 which not only is not native, but will not escape or make any attempt 

 to naturalize itself It has little better claim to be considered a Bri- 

 tish plant than the dragon-tree of Oratava. The authors of our two 

 descriptive lists of British plants appear to have exercised but slender 

 judgment in the retention or rejection of species as native. — E. N."] 



Antirrhinum majus. 



The query respecting Sempervivum tectorum, which certainly has 

 not the slightest claim to a place among British plants, induces me to 

 ask whether any reader has ever seen Antirrhinum majus in a native 

 habitat, and also what is its native country. In a continental trip 

 last summer I saw it nowhere but on garden-walls and rubbish-heaps 

 in stony places, where it was evidently the outcast of a garden. — Y. 



Angelica Archangelica. 



In five editions (perhaps also in the first) of the 'British Flora' we 

 have the habitat of this plant recorded as " Thames' side near Dork- 

 ing." Pray inform me in what part of the United Kingdom this may 

 be.— r. W. 



[I have no idea. Will any reader kindly ofier an explanation ? — 

 E.N.] 



Seeing there is no such locality as that indicated on your last wrap- 

 per, it follows there is a gross error somewhere. This may possibly 

 extend beyond the limits of Britain ; and it seems by no means impos- 

 sible that some European station has been thus transmogrified. — Y. 



British Cyclamens. 



A correspondent, in allusion to an observation of my own in the 

 Preface, inquires whether I suppose we have two British species of 



