1116 



ampton, but neillier of tliera in places sufficiently remote from 

 cultivation to warrant their being, here at least, considered indige- 

 nous. 



About Carisbrooke Castle, near Newport, Isle of Wight, we gathered 

 Iris foetida [?], Gentiana Araarella, and, on the rampart wall, Centran- 

 thus ruber. On a ledge near the window of King Charles's apartment, 

 pointed out to all visitors, there is a fine plant of Lathyrus latifolius, 

 well established and very characteristic. In Parkhurst Forest, about 

 two miles from Newport, there is a very luxuriant form of Cnicus pra- 

 tensis, nearly two yards high, and bearing from three to four leaves. 

 There is also a form of Scutellaria minor, from two to three feet high, 

 very straggling in its growth, but agreeing sufficiently with the com- 

 mon form in every character, except habit and size, and not approach- 

 ing to S. galericulata. The radiate form of Centam-ea nigra is the rule 

 here, as in all the western parts of the Island visited by me, where 

 this plant grows ; and the common form is the exception. About 

 Freshwater there is a Mentha, not uncommon, which I took for M. 

 sylvestris. A stalk of Lavatera arborea, with fruit on its branches, 

 was found among the rejectamenta of the sea ; also a few stalks of the 

 sea stock {Malthiolitsmaritimus) [?]. The vegetation of the downs at 

 Freshwater, and all along the coast by the Beacon, the Needles Light- 

 house, Alum Bay, &c., is of a remarkably stunted nature. Daucus 

 Carota was scarcely half an inch high ; yet it bore an umbel of 

 flowers. Campanula glomerata was rarely found above an inch high, 

 and usually with a single flower. Gentiana Amarella was also inva- 

 riably found with four segments both in the calyx and corolla, and 

 those of the latter usually more rounded than in the common form of 

 this plant. About Yarmouth, Spartina stricta is plentiful, both on the 

 Yar and in a salt-marsh going towards Sconce Point. On the sandy 

 beach which separates the sea from this marsh, Eryngo maritima \)] 

 was very fine and plentiful ; also Psamma arenaria. Convolvulus Sol- 

 danella (only in leaf), Asparagus officinalis, Fceniculum vulgare (the 

 former plentiful, the latter very sparingly), Cakile maritima, and a few 

 other less interesting species. On the downs above Sconce Point 

 was observed Spiranthes autumnalis, very sparingly. This plant is 

 eaten off" by the sheep ; on the cow-pasture, it was not so scarce 

 along the coast. Erythra^a pulchella, a very dwarf form, was not 

 scarce ; Hyoscyamus nigcr, where the fort is building. About Yar- 

 mouth, Borago officinalis is plentiful in a lane, both on the bank and 

 in the ditch (a dry one) ; also Lycium barbarum, what is vulgarly 

 called the " tea-plant" about London. In the gardens grew, as a weed, 



