6J7 



this, than if confined to the accidental limits of the county of Surrey 

 alone. I think we have strength enough to work out such a Flora, 

 with the industrious and zealous co-operation of the botanists residing 

 in different parts of these associated counties ; and I put it to Mr. 

 Salmon, to whom the county is so much indebted for the discovery 

 of many of its rarities, nevertheless, to sink, if not loo late, the ido- 

 syncrasy of this favourite county into something more cosmopolitan. 



Adonis autumnalis, Sfc. 



The President read the following note, by Mr. James Hussey, of 

 Salisbury : — 



Some very just remarks, from your lamented correspondent, the 

 late Dr. Bromfield, appeared some time back in the ' Phytologist ' 

 (Phytol. iii. 317, 416), reprobating a habit contracted latterly by Bri- 

 tish botanists, of considering certain plants to be doubtfully indige- 

 nous upon insufficient grounds. Now a note upon Adonis autumnalis 

 in the ' Phytologist' for March (Phytol. iv. 470) affords a good instance 

 of this peculiar proneness to doubt ; for if we consider the reasons 

 there given for supposing Adonis autumnalis to be " probably not 

 truly wild," they are these : — First, that it grows in cultivated fields ; 

 and secondly, that it cannot be depended on two seasons following. 

 Upon referring to writers upon plants, whether ancient or modern, it 

 will be seen that Adonis autumnalis is always described as growing 

 in corn-fields and cultivated land in France, Belgium, Switzerland, 

 Italy, and Spain, That it should be found, then, only in corn-fields 

 in England, is no more than was reasonably to have been expected. 

 Cultivated land is its natural station, in common with many other 

 plants ; and its occurrence there can consequently be no reason 

 against its being indigenous. But then " it cannot be depended on 

 two seasons following." Now with regard to this, there are unknown 

 causes operating, which tend to keep some plants scarcer than others; 

 • but in the present instance it is, besides, obvious that plants growing 

 in cultivated land are more liable to disturbance fiom the rotation of 

 the crops than those in other positions, and so do not appear in the 

 same profusion every year in the same place ; but this fact is scarcely 

 available to prove that a particular plant is not a native, because it 

 applies with equal force to Ranunculus arvensis, Centaurea Cyanus, 

 Papaver hybridum, Bupleurum rotundifolium, and others which are at 

 present free from the brand of an asterisk. Moreover, if the obser- 

 vations of the late Dr. Bromfield upon CEnanthe pimpinelloides and 

 Silaus pratensis (Phytol. iii. 405 — 408), and of Mr. Lees in a paper 

 VOL. IV. 4 K 



