186.2.] KENTISH BOTANY. 53 



chiefly composed of clay, with the adjoining beach, the best bota- 

 nizing ground of the island. 



The botany of Thanet may be subdivided into, first, the agra- 

 rial plants, or those which grow on cultivated ground or in small 

 portions of waste, so called, but really places where manure is 

 laid up and prepared for the fields, or by roadsides. The species 

 that grow in the fields grow also by roadsides, because the fields 

 are in close proximity to the roads ; there is no fence and rarely 

 a bank for separating the one from the other. The viatical plants, 

 as they are called, though with more pedantry than truth in their 

 nomenclature, do not exist here as a separate or distinct class. 

 There are indeed some plants growing by the roadsides Avliich do 

 not grow in the fields, such as two of the Calaminthas, Verbena, 

 Salvia, AnthylUs, etc. These also grow on the clift's. All the 

 field species grow by the roadside, but all the roadside species 

 do not grow in the fields. 



The second class will contain the maritime plants, and with 

 these are always associated certain species which are not strictly 

 coast plants, being found in inland situations ; but these are con- 

 veniently grouped with the former. The aquatic and marsh 

 plants will comprise all that we saw about Minster^ Monkton, 

 and Reculver, belonging to the third section. 



In the first class, or cornfield plants, Papaver hybridum was 

 not scarce in cultivated ground near Margate. As a Kentish 

 plant it is not uncommon in almost all parts of north and east 

 Kent where the chalk crops out, and where the land is in culti- 

 vation ; the whole county is arable. Heaths and commons are 

 comparatively rare in Kent, and do not exist in its extreme eastern 

 portion. 



Diplotaxis muralis was more common than Groundsel or Shep- 

 herd's-purse. This plant is by no means particularly attached to 

 rich or marly soil ; it thrives well on gravel. 



Scabiosa arvensis [Knautia] in both its usual forms was com- 

 mon ; so was Galeopsis Ladanum and Stachys arvensis. Galium 

 tricorne appeared in some considerable plenty in a beanfield near 

 Minster. Linaria spuria and L. Elatine, with Reseda lutea and 

 Mercuralis annua, bring up the rear of a very small list of corn- 

 field species. 



There was one of the Grasses particularly plentiful in Thanet, 

 and to which special attention Avas given because it has been 



