540 



all directions. This plant shows its congeniality to the moist, mild 

 climate of Devon, by iminigiating to the old trunks of trees, where it 

 makes a very pretty appearance, but is always confined to rocks and 

 walls in the midland counties. Some grotesque old pollards in a 

 romantic lane above Dawlish were almost covered with the Cotyle- 

 don ; and I was afterwards particularly pleased by the look of a lofty 

 oak on the banks of the river Dart at Sharpham, whose bole was stud- 

 ded with a host of small Cotyledons to a great height up the tree. 



On emerging from the deep lanes I had been tracking, there ap- 

 peared a splendid prospect of the quiet sea from the heights above 

 Dawlish, with the long, sandy neck of the Warren and the white 

 houses of Exmouth opposite. This " Warren," near Dawlish, which 

 is a mere sandy islet, accessible at low-water, has of late years merited 

 the attention of botanists, as a habitat for Trichomena Columnae, first 

 found here by Messrs. Milford and Trevelyan, in J 834. It is doubt- 

 less an instance of a plant extending its range from natural causes, for 

 it deserves to be remarked, as stated by Dr. Halle, in the volume 

 previously quoted,* that the Rev. Mr. Shepherd, Rector of Shilling- 

 ford, who had known the Warren from his youth, was decided as to 

 its recent introduction in so well-beaten a locality, and considered 

 " that the bulb must have been brought from its proper habitat in the 

 Channel Islands by a current of the ocean, and left by a tide on the 

 sand." 



June 19, — At Torquay, and thence to Babbicombe rocks, a beati- 

 ful locality, well meriting botanical exploration. The bay, hemmed 

 in by limestone crags, forms a double cove, with an intervening mass 

 of broken trap-rocks ; while eastward red sandstone succeeds to the 

 limestone ; and at Petit Tor the limestone masses appear mixed up 

 with the red strata in a very irregular manner. The beach is formed 

 of milk-white pebbles, which, covered by the transparent green waters 

 of the sea, has a remarkable effect, as if molten glass was poured out 

 upon the shore. Enormous masses of red conglomerate block up the 

 eastern side of Babbicombe Bay in fancifully-shaped piles, the " ruin 

 of ages ;" and the insidious sea still presses upon the base of the 

 sandstone, urging it to topple down. 



On the talus of the broken cliffs here Sedura rupestre was flourish- 

 ing in the greatest abundance, as well as the common S. acre; and 

 S. anglicum, scattered here and there, was finely in flower in the hot 



* 'Letters, Historical and Botanical, relating to the Vale of Teign,' ^c. 8vo. 

 iF6l. 



