1863.] NATIVE AND NATURALIZED BRITISH SPECIES. 557 



This is like the amiable weakness of some of our linguistic 

 purists, who will admit no word as British unless legitimately 

 derived from the languages of our Celtic and Saxon ancestors. 

 Words are, however, far less permanent in their character and 

 application than plants. The latter generally remain almost un- 

 changed, both in their properties and their localities; all at- 

 tempts to trace their history to very remote periods will be vain, 

 and especially unsatisfactory will be all endeavours to trace them 

 either to the original cradle of the human race, or to other 

 countries more or less remote from the places where they ai-e 

 now found. There is no conceivable objection to the terms na- 

 tive and naturalized, spontaneous and cultivated, except this sole 

 and important one, — the impossibility of employing them with 

 certainty and satisfaction. It may be affirmed that a plant is of 

 spontaneous growth, or that it is only cultivated in any particular 

 locality ; but who will affirm that a plant is native in the sense 

 applied by botanists generally ? The best evidence of this diffi- 

 culty is, that botanists are not agreed on this point ; or if there 

 is any agreement, it is generally ascribable to indifference. Many 

 affirm that because a plant is spontaneous and plentiful, and 

 tolerably well established, that it is native. 



There are two plants in Surrey with which we are well ac- 

 quainted, and which have been spontaneously produced for many 

 years, Imjjatiens fulva abounds on the Tillingbourne, below 

 Albury ; there is not one plant above the gardens of this park 

 and mansion. It also abounds more or less on the banks of the 

 Wey, only below the confluence of the Albury stream. The gar- 

 dens of Albury are the cradle of this now well-established Ame- 

 rican plant, and the country whence and the means by which it 

 was transported are not very doubtful. Isutis tinctoria is another 

 plant which occupies but a small space, but abounds in examples. 

 Its centre is one of the chalk quarries between Guildford and 

 Shalford. This spreads over the adjoining fields, but only to a 

 very short distance from the chalk-pit. 



Some say the Isatis is a native. No one says that the Impa- 

 tiens fulva is a native; it is well known to be an introduced 

 species. Mimulus luteus has been naturalized in Surrey and in 

 Yorkshire and in Scotland, and the plant was unknown in Eng- 

 land, even as a garden plant, forty or fifty years ago. This is a 

 case in which we may pronounce positively, for the plant has 



