1863.] NATIVE AND NATURALIZED BRITISH SPECIES. 555 



ever have been in this condition. Cultivated plants are still 

 more rarely found wild, and then only in the vicinity of places 

 where they have been cultivated. Our cereal grasses, several of 

 our leguminiferous plants, our vegetables, and probably some of 

 our flowers, are examples of this. 



Does any botanist seriously believe that our numerous varie- 

 ties of wheat have all been produced from the wild species of 

 Triticwn ? We know it is believed that the whole race of Cab- 

 bages — drumheads, sugarloafs, the ancient well-known Batersea, 

 all sorts of Cabbage, red, white, and grey, Savoys, Scotch Kale, 

 Broccoli, Brussels sprouts. Cauliflowers, etc. — have all descended 

 from Brassica oleracea. Oredat Judams Ajjella. The Almighty, 

 at the beginning, created herbs yielding seed, and trees yielding 

 fruit, for meat to man, and gave them into his charge to lieep them 

 and dress them. Plants were created for delectation as well as for 

 sustenance, and by the art and industry of man infinite varieties 

 of these have been produced. Some of the ornamental species 

 of which the native country has not yet been discovered may be- 

 long to this class, which may be said to be domesticated. Every- 

 body who observes knows that there are certain plants possessing 

 all but a cosmopolitan character. They accompany man in all 

 his migrations; wherever he settles they find a home. 



The Nettle, the Chickweed, the Shepherd's Purse, and the 

 annual Poa {Poa annua) are familiar examples. The gi'eatcr 

 Celandine, the Vervain, the Borage, and the green Alkanet are 

 less common instances, but exemplify this peculiarity. The 

 WallfloAver, the Snapdragon, our two mural Pinks — Dianthus 

 Caryophyllus and D. plumarius, — may have this property, viz. a 

 capability of self-dependence in the society of man. It may be 

 assumed that the four last-named species, and we may add the 

 Wall Toadflax {Linaria Cymbalaria) , are natives of Europe, for 

 this reason, that they grow spontaneously throughout the greater 

 part of our continent. Why may they not, for the same reason, 

 be natives of England, or of some part of it at least ? We admit 

 that England is in Europe, and moreover many believe that in 

 bygone ages this island formed a part of the continent, and that 

 the Strait of Dover was then an isthmus. 



Even granting that plants have a centre of vegetation towards 

 which they tend, or from which they diverge, and admitting fur- 

 ther that they are most abundant in this their centre of distri- 



