735 



demand for it. After securing quarters at the only hotel where any 

 beds were vacant, we heard about a score of tourists refused admittance, 

 and sent back to Conway, which happened to be the place whence 

 they came, to get lodgings for the night. Fennel and wormwood still 

 flourish, and will probably retreat before, rather than capitulate to, 

 advancing civilization. As may well be supposed, there was one bo- 

 tanical object uppermost in our thoughts — the Cotoneaster vulgaris. 

 This is one of the plants whose value the ' London Catalogue,' second 

 edition, expresses by an arithmetical notation peculiar to itself, as 

 being ■^^, a fraction which would most assuredly have puzzled Cocker, 

 and may have been invented by some wag, to indicate the inestimable 

 worth of the few species to which it is applied. Mr. Lees' graphic 

 description of the locality led us to it at once. There is no lack of 

 the plant ; but we could only find three specimens in fruit, each hav- 

 ing a single scarlet pome. The lower leaves were beginning to assume 

 the same colour. Upon the same ledges of rock were Silene nutans, 

 Veronica spicata (frequent), Thalictrum minus, and Linosyris vulgaris 

 (not yet in flower). Higher up was Epipactis ovalis. Bah., having a 

 scorched and weather-beaten appearance. Juniperus communis, in 

 the same station, has assumed a perfectly recumbent habit, clinging 

 to the stony slopes as if conscious of its bleak position. 



The walk along the shore to Conway gave Convolvulus Soldanella 

 (in fruit, and abundantly) and Salsola Kali. The calm sea and bright 

 sunshine tempted us to extemporize a bath, which, in consequence of 

 a rising tide, and a beach of too easy gradients, was well nigh attended 

 with the loss of our habiliments and baggage. 



Diverging eastward, to Castell Diganwy, we found Cotyledon Um- 

 bilicus, Silene nutans (abundantly), Smyrnium Olusatrum, and Sedum 

 Telephium. Mr. Pamplin, who was in North Wales but a ieyr days 

 previously, suggests that (3. purpureum should be added to the name 

 of the last-mentioned. Its mountain home has certainly infused a far 

 deeper hue into its petals than is met with in tamer situations. The 

 slopes of the adjacent hill to the north of Bryn Gosol yielded Dian- 

 thus deltoides sparingly, also Sedum Anglicum, a plant we frequently 

 met with afterwards. Upon the ivy of Conway Castle, growing 

 chiefly outside the walls, but also occurring within their bounds, we 

 found Orobanche Hederae, Duhy. We noticed the largest quantity of 

 this plant upon a partially ivy-clad bank under the west walls of the 

 Castle, and just before the archway under which the road to the river 

 passes. Its connexion with the roots of the ivy was certainly une- 

 quivocal in many instances. To this locality must be added Castell 



