1863.] ROMAN OATS ON ENGLISH FARMS. 495 



Next, SteUaria nemoruin was never recorded as a Norfolk 

 plant prior to 1861, when it was entered on the authority of our 

 most estimable Aldeby correspondent. That this latter-named 

 plant does not grow in the many places above mentioned, our 

 Yarmouth correspondent will not aver, for he has never been 

 there to look for it. But an inveterate sceptic would surmise 

 that probably Cerastium aquaticum was mistaken for it. This 

 plant is not so unlikely to be confounded with its rarer and more 

 northern cousin as the two Lepidiums. 



The Editor does not, and ought not to doubt the fidelity and 

 accuracy of either of his Norfolk correspondents ; for if he did, 

 all confidence in testimony would be shaken ; but he cannot re- 

 frain from stating that his other correspondent botanized about 

 the North Battery on Yarmouth Denes, and saw all the plants 

 with which b'tellaria nemorum is said to be associated, without 

 seeing the plant in question. 



Our correspondent's assertion that he intended only to enter 

 in his list the rarer plants of the seashores and salt-marshes, 

 must be somewhat modified when it is considered that he enters 

 Galium verum and Siwn angusti folium, plants which are quite as 

 common, or commoner in most localities, than are the two species 

 Lepiclium ruder ale and Glaux maritima. 



KOMAN OATS ON ENGLISH FARMS. 



By James Binks. 



In a field on a farm occupied by Mr. Binks, at Pepper Moor, 

 near Alnwick, some ancient encampments long existed which tra- 

 dition ascribed to the Romans. The lapse of time, and the spirit 

 of agricultural improvement, gradually obliterated almost every 

 trace of them ; and about a year ago, the last of the whins, which 

 time out of mind had covered the ground where the Roman 

 legionaries had trodden, were cut down, and the land ploughed 

 and sown with barley. When the barley was ready for the sickle, 

 Mr. Binks was astonished to observe several heads of strange- 

 looking oats amongst it. Some of them were unusually tall and 

 strong, with long branching stemlets, whilst others had globular 

 heads, resembling the head of the onion. Mr. Binks collected 

 no less than seventy-five varieties never seen in the district before. 



