nil 



The apparent preference for viatical situations, on the part of H. 

 echioides, appears to arise from the fact, that in such situations the 

 growth of the plant is not interfered with in the early stages. Indeed, 

 were it not for the proceedings of husbandry, H. echioides would be 

 a much more common plant than it is now on the stronger soils of 

 this county ; for, as it first throws out its leaves in the autumnal 

 period of the year, it is liable to be destroyed in our fields, by the 

 agricultural operations then going on. The finest specimens of this 

 not inelegant weed 1 ever met with, and they were numerous enough, 

 were in a field of cole- wort left for seed. Here the young plants of 

 the bristly ox-tongue were not cut up in the autumn ; and w'hen full- 

 grown they were equally secure from destruction, because their eradi- 

 cation would have caused more damage to the crop than was incurred 

 by allowing them to remain. 



Cuscuta Hassiaca, Pf In a field of lucerne at Rawreth ; just com- 

 ing into flower on the 1st of September, 1852. 



Marruhium vulgare, L. Has extended itself, during the last two 

 or three years, over some parts of the remains of Old Tiptree Heath, 

 and is particularly abundant on a bank of newly enclosed land. It 

 would not be right to leave unnoticed the fact, that the horehound 

 had long been growing in some cottage garden-ground close to the 

 new banks ; but in other parts of the Heath, where solitary plants of 

 Marrubium vulgare are occasionally to be found, no gardens contain- 

 ing the horehound exist. 



Chenopodium album, L. The large, green-looking weeds that are 

 found growing on dung-heaps, and in rich ground, and which are 

 known by the above name, cannot be the exact type of the species 

 which Linneus had in view when he adopted the concise definition of 

 Tournefort, " Chenopodium folio sinuato candicante," as expressive 

 of the character of this common plant. In the neighbourhood of 

 Kelvedon, the specimens of Chenopodium album, corresponding with 

 the definition of Tournefort, and agreeing in appearance and charac- 

 ter with specimens in the Linnean herbarium (as 1 am politely 

 informed by Mr. Watson), are to be found, in a scattered as well as 

 in a gregarious manner, in the sides and corners of corn-fields, among 

 wheat, barley, oats, and beans. In such situations, but most particu- 

 larly on light soils, they are to be met with all over the eastern por- 

 tion of the county of Essex. They are also occasionally found 

 growing in gravel-pits, and on gravelly banks, and are then often 

 accompanied by the more robust green-leaved form of the species, 

 and by the variety known as Chenopodium viride. 



