1862.] PLANTS CULTIVATED BY COLLINSON. 21 



The jcliief object of our visit to Broome Park was to see^ not 

 to collect Orchids, and in this object Ave were partially disap- 

 pointed. We did not see many of the rariores (rarities), and of 

 the 7'arissimce we saw none. 



Several reasons may be assigned for our slender success, be- 

 sides the one above stated, viz. the reckless practice of non- 

 botanical collectors ; in the first place, as we were informed 

 by a resident lover of Orchids, the pastures had been over- 

 stocked in spring, and in the early summer, a natural conse- 

 quence of the scarcity of the fodder, occasioned by the pro- 

 tracted, severe winter. The excess of stock and the deficiency 

 of pasturage contributed to the scarcity of the Orchid family. 

 What may be the effect of a more than usually cold spring on 

 the members of this family, we were not able to determine, but 

 whatever may have been the cause, the rarer species were scarcer 

 than usual during the spring and summer of 1861. 



CATALOGUE OF PLANTS CULTIVATED BY COLLINSON. 



Extracts from a privately printed Catalogue, and Brief Notes on 

 some British and Foreign Plants which were cultivated in 

 Mr. CoUinson's garden at Mill Hill, Ilendon, Middlesex. 



The celebrated botanist and florist, Peter Collinson, lived at 

 Mill Hill, Ilendon, Middlesex, about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century — upwards of a hundred years ago. This Catalogue w^as 

 compiled by L. W. Dillwyn, and printed at Swansea in 1843. 



Anemone Pulsatilla. — The following note is appended to 

 this entry : — " Mr. Knowlton found millions of Pulsatillas grow- 

 ing everywhere in the grass,'^ from a mile south of Lancaster, 

 on the way to Little Purton" (Hart. Coll. p. 3). This is a new 

 fact for the botanists of Lancashire and the north of England, 

 who could hardly have overlooked so conspicuous a plant, and 

 one which appears when there are few other plants in flower. 



* Mr. Knowlton was gardener to Consul Sherard in the earlier part of his life, 

 and subsequently to the Earl of Burlington. Ho was a zealous botanist and 

 antiquary. See Pliil. Trans, vol. 45. He died in 1782, at tlie advanced age of 

 ninety. 



