53 KENTISH BOTANY. [February, 



in Thanet have no fences, and the roads are all without skirting 

 Avails, trees, or hedge-shrubs. Paths are also very common in 

 almost all directions. Hence there is no impediment to the 

 botanist ; if he wishes to learn what grows on the ground, he 

 need but look at his feet or on his right hand and on his left, and 

 he will have to blame himself if he does not see everything which 

 grows, both natural and cultivated. 



There are several plants here which are both natural and arti- 

 ficial. The chief of these are semi-naturalized species, viz. Tri- 

 folium pratense, Onobrychis, Hedysarum, and Medicago sativa. 

 We saw a very few starved examples of Trifoliwn incarnatum, 

 but this latter species manifested no tendency to become sponta- 

 neous here. 



The roadside plants, omitting the very common ones Avhich 

 appear everywhere, were Smyrnium Olusatrum, though now (Au- 

 gust the 7th) long past its flowering-time, and Pastinaca sativa 

 just coming into perfection. Erigeron acris and Salvia verbe- 

 naca grew on banks here and there, but the latter was neither in 

 abundance nor of luxuriant growth. 



We traversed the island along the cliff and inland in all direc- 

 tions, and a long list of what we did not see, though we hoped to 

 see them, might easily be drawn up, but it would be a much 

 longer one than the list of plants we did see. 



Our first long excursion was across the fields to St. Peter's and 

 along the cliff to E-amsgate and Pegwell Bay. At Pegwell there 

 is a very thick deposit of plastic clay on the chalk, and something 

 of an undercliff. Note. There is no undercliff between Reculver 

 and Pegwell ; the sea approaches to the base of the chalk and 

 washes away the silt constantly falling from the upper surface 

 and from the face of the rock, for atmospheric causes are in 

 continuous operation, although their effects are only perceptible 

 by the gradual diminution of the land on this side. These in- 

 roads of the sea have reduced the island to one-half of its area 

 since the seventh century, as we learn from the Venerable Bede, 

 who, in his ' Ecclesiastical History,' informs us that its extent in 

 his time was about double its present dimensions. At the Bams- 

 gate side of Pegwell Bay there is about half a mile of undercliff, 

 similar to that at Kingsdown, on the western side of the Bay, 

 three miles beyond Deal, but not nearly so productive of objects 

 of interest to the botanist. We found this little bit, although 



