302 PLANTS OF ENFIELD CHASE. [October, 



the high honour of full and undisputed citizenship. It is as 

 much a native as the Daisy, although not so common ! ! 



This will appear most capricious and inconsistent to all who 

 are well acquainted with the distribution of our British plants, 

 and especially to those who know tlie botany of the metropo- 

 litan counties. 



Elecampane is probably wild in the Isle of Wight, and it may 

 be quite right to call it a native ; but, on the other hand, it is 

 quite wrong to say that the other two are not equally so. For 

 one plant or one locality seen for Inula Helenium, at least twenty 

 have been seen for Sambucus Ebulus, and thousands for Vmca 

 minor. No plant is more common in Enfield Chase than the 

 latter. It is nearly as common about Totteridge and Epping 

 Forest. Every wood and copse near Enfield and Southgate are, 

 so to say, carpeted thickly with this pretty plant. The creep- 

 ing Bugle plant, Ajuga reptans, is not so common, nor the Wood 

 Crowfoot, Ranunculus auricomus, nor the Primrose. It is plen- 

 tiful in Surrey, about East and West Clandon, and in other 

 parts of that county. It also abounds in Essex, and about 

 Theydon Bois ; and in many other parts of this district it is seen 

 with variegated leaves and particoloured flowers. 



I have never seen Sambucus Ebulus in what might be called 

 justly a suspicious locality but once, viz. at a farm near Llanderfel 

 (Capel Bethel) . I never saw Inula Helenium in an unsuspected or 

 unsuspicious locality, except in the one above recorded — it is be- 

 lieved for the first time — near Chase Cottage, or near South 

 Lodge, Enfield. 



Another plant, which nobody has ever suspected of being any- 

 thing but native, was seen in the hedge near Chase Cottage, viz. 

 Tanacelum vulgare ; and here the plant appeared to be, and pro- 

 bably was, an escape. Like the Elecampane, it was formerly 

 cultivated or kept in gardens, and was of some repute in cook- 

 ery, as its more respectable associate was eminent for its cura- 

 tive and cosmetic qualities, applicable alike to diseases of the 

 body, infirmities of the intellect, and griefs of the heart. Yet 

 this notoriously cultivated plant is called in ' Cybele ' a native, 

 and the Periwinkle and Banewort denizens. " Credat Judseus V 



It is barely even-handed justice to brand some plants as sus- 

 pected or notorious aliens only because they may happen at 

 some time or other to have been favourites, and therefore taken 



