1862.] KENTISH BOTANY. 87 



temperature about 80° in the shade. We were out either by the 

 seashore, or on the cliffs, or travelling over the fields, or looking 

 into ditches at least twelve out of the fourteen hours that the sun 

 was above the horizon. 



A few remarks on the botany of Thanet^ and some reflections 

 on the ancient and modern state of the island and of its popula- 

 tion, will not be out of place in a botanical journal. 



First, if a botanist, totally unacquainted with the natural vege- 

 tation of Britain, and ignorant of the prevalent views of botanical 

 writers on native, naturalized, and alien plants, were to begin his 

 study of botany in Tlianet, he would be puzzled and mystified by 

 our classifications, both in relation to the origin and distribution 

 of this portion of our spontaneous Flora. 



A tyro could not understand on what principle English bota-f 

 nists call Trifolium pratense native, and Medicago sativa and 

 Onobrychis sativa aliens. Until he had learned the history of the 

 modern scientific classification and had studied plants in other 

 parts of England, he could not apprehend the propriety of placing 

 Lolium perenne in one class (the native one), and Bromus arven-> 

 sis in another (the alien class). He would see all the above- 

 named plants universally distributed, and all equally well esta- 

 blished and abundant both in a wild and in a cultivated state. 



Again, it would not be very easy for our assumed tyro to guess 

 the reason why Papaver hybridam and Galeopsis Ladanum, which 

 grow cheek-by-jowl in the cornfields of Thanet, are placed in 

 different categories, the former in the class of Colonists, and the 

 latter in that of Native agrestals. It might be a puzzle to him to 

 find, for example, Diplotaxis muralis called a denizen viatical 

 and glareal, and its constant associate, both here and in north, 

 east, and south Kent, Mercurialis annua, classed among genuine 

 native viatical plants. In Kent these two plants are inseparable 

 companions. 



Cultivation is believed to have a greater effect on the naturaliT 

 zation and dispersion of exotic species than appears to be the case 

 in Thanet. Here every rood of ground is in tillage; there are 

 no woods, no commons, no moors, scarcely so much as a hedge, 

 and very few trees ; parks, and extensive lawiis and gardens do 

 not exist in this arable corner of Enji^land. If tillage were favour-r 

 able to the production of plants grown from imported seeds, the 

 Isle of Thanet should be the richest botanizing ground in England, 



