534 



Lepidium Smithii. Abundant on the cliffs, and nearly as tall and 

 branched as L. campestre. 



June 3. — Crossed the ferry at Starcross, and progressed to Tyne- 

 raouth. Rosacanina appeared in flower, for the first time this season; 

 and a bramble of the Caesian group presented nearly expanded petals. 

 About a mile and a half from Teignmouth, on the Newton road, I ob- 

 served great quantities of fennel {Fwniculum officinale) on a wooded 

 bank overlooking the river Teign. The bank was quite a waste, neg- 

 lected spot ; but the railroad intervened between it and the river, and 

 therefore the neighbouring ground must have been subjected to dis- 

 turbance within the last three or four years. 



Linmn angnstifolium. This is one of the commonest plants on 

 the sandy declivities around Exmouth and Tynemouth. It was now 

 just showing expanded flowers. Some luxuriant specimens between 

 Teignmouth and Dawlish were above a yard in height, and much 

 branched. 



Verhasciim virgaium. Several specimens of this plant occurred 

 by the side of a pathway up the cliffs between Teignmouth and the 

 Dawlish road. The Rev. J. Pike Jones, in his ' Botanical Tour through 

 Devon and CornwalT (1820), mentions a Verbascum, rather doubtfully, 

 that he gathered both near Teignmouth and Torquay. His plants 

 were not, perhaps, developed well, for he says he was inclined to con- 

 sider his specimens as V. Blattaria, but that " Mr. Anderson deter- 

 mined them to be V. virgatum." Mine were certainly the latter plant; 

 and its long continuance in this neighbourhood is thus shown. It is 

 remarkable that all the specimens I saw were covered with a species 

 of Coccus, exuding a secretion of such a nauseous and foetid kind, 

 that it was almost impossible to preserve any of them. 



June 4. — Wandered to the cliffs eastward of Teignmouth, and by 

 Lower Holcombe to the " Parson's Rock," through which the railway 

 is now tunnelled. From its dizzy summit, which is rather a dange- 

 rous position, as its crumbling edge overhangs the excavation below, 

 there is a splendid view of the sea, with the distant cliffs of Dorset 

 and Portland on one side, and Hope's Nose, Berry Head, and Tor- 

 bay on the other. On carefully rounding the cliff the awful excava- 

 tion below came fully into view, really frightfid to contemplate. Yet 

 the Devonian farmer ploughs almost to the very edge of the precipice, 

 leaving hardly a nook for the Plantago or Armeria, which are forced 

 upon the verge, but bringing with him a number of agrarian plants to 

 supply their place; for here, among other attendants upon cultivation, 

 I gathered Papavcr hybridum, Anthemis arvcnsis, and Campanula 



