1862.] MAIANTHEMUM BIFOLIUM. 49 



lawn which lies towards Highgate ; crossing at the pond-head, 

 a grassy, open walk leads np the hill not far from the verge of 

 the wood which is opposite to Kentish Town. Abont two hun- 

 dred yards from the pond, the path diverges to the left, both to 

 avoid a rather steep acclivity and to keep nearer to the outside 

 of the park ; but the way to the spot where the rare plant grows 

 is straight onwards up the mossy path, and not far from a rustic 

 summer-house in a level spot almost surrounded and over- 

 shadowed by large Beech-trees. The plant does not grow under 

 the Firs which grow on and about this hill, and which are pro- 

 minent objects from the path across the fields between Hamp- 

 stead Heath and Highgate, but near the Beech-trees, as above 

 said, and between the summer-house and the fields through which 

 the path leads to Highgate. 



Some conjectures about the nativity of this rare species may 

 naturally be expected from the present reporter, who has visited 

 the locality many times during the lapse of years between 1830 

 and 1861. 



When I first observed the species, I inquired of an old man 

 who had known both the plant and its station for many years. 

 He was an aged man, probably about seventy, when Mr. Cock- 

 burn and myself were young ; and he asserted positively that it 

 had not been planted there in his remembrance. No herbaceous 

 plant grows there now, nor for many years previously to the pre- 

 sent year, 1861, which is not indisputably of British growth or 

 origin. The usual sylvan plants grow there, viz. the Wood Ane- 

 mone, the Primrose, the Lily-of-the- Valley, the Wood Hyacinth 

 or Bluebell, the commoner Grasses, Luzulas, and Ferns. 



The introduced species are mostly shrubs and trees, and there 

 is none of any account but the common Rhododendron, which 

 has here, by the want of space and too much shade, been drawn 

 up to an extraordinary height. 



The Sorbus domestica (No. 10) I have never seen near Hamp- 

 stead; but a Sorb often mistaken for its much rarer relation is 

 not uncommon in the vicinity, both in the woods and hedges 

 near Highgate, Muswell Hill, Hendon, Hampstead, and Finch- 

 ley. 



Helkborus viridis (No. 12) and Paris quadrifolia (No. 9) 

 were observed by Mr. Collinson a century ago in this district 

 (see ' Phytologist,' vol. v. p. 172). That they have not recently 



N. S. VOL. VI. H 



