216 REVIEWS. [July, 



are added^ from the pen of a learned professor, some remarks on 

 its origin and introduction into Europe, but the proof that it is 

 American and not European is not very strong. This authority 

 further says that it has probably been introduced into the north 

 of Ireland with seed-corn from the south of France. This is not 

 improbable, if it be true that the Irish farmers buy their seed- 

 corn in the south of France. V. peregrina has been seen wild in 

 Bohemia, Germany, Belgium, France, Naples, Russia, etc. It 

 is described in Cosson and Germain's 'Flore des Environs de 

 Paris ' as being plentiful about Versailles, which is considerably 

 further north than the centre of France. "A. R., assez rare 

 spontane? Observe depuis plus de quinze ans aux environs de 

 Versailles, dans le voisinage des habitations et dans quelques jar- 

 dins, oil il persiste, bien qu'on I'y arrache chaque annee avec soin 

 comme une mauvaise herbe" {De Boucheman). It has grown 

 about Versailles for fifteen years, in spite of all their diligence in 

 rooting it out of their gardens. See Coss. et Ger. sub Ver. per. 

 Mons. Crepin, in his 'Manuel de la Flore de Belgique,' 

 localizes it thus : — " V. peregrina : Lieux cultives, jardins. R. 

 (rare.) Louvain, Vilvorde, env. de Bruxelles, Habay la Vielle ; 

 indigene ?" British botanists will, it is believed, unhesitatingly 

 answer this query with an emphatic No. 



But these extracts show that its claims to a place among Euro- 

 pean plants are not altogether groundless. 



In Linnseus's ' Systema Plantarum Europaj/ both V. romana 

 and V. peregrina appear as European species ; they may, however, 

 be only varieties of one species. V. romana is localized in the 

 south of Europe (''in Europee australioris agris"), and V. pere- 

 grina " in Europse hortis arvisque." 



In Miiller's Danish Flora the locality is " in insula Ama- 

 gria, p. 5 (cum signo f) •" ■^'■ 



There is strong evidence that the plant has been known as 

 European for above a century, and it has not been confined to a 

 corner. But granting that its nativity, or even spontaneity, is not 

 fully established in the North of Europe, i. e. in Denmark, Hol- 

 land, Belgium, Ireland, Scotland, etc., it should not be inferred 

 that it is not European, because in some parts it is only an acci- 



* v. peregrina is figxired in Fl. Danica, iii. 407 ; ui Eeichenbach's ' Plantse 

 Criticae,' i. 36 ; in Mutel, ' Flore Fran9aisc,' 46 ; in Co?son's Atlas, 16. 



