1859.] MURAL PLANTS. 47 



sufficiently distinct to show a British botanist that he is not 

 botanizing at home. In arborescent botany it is quite the re- 

 verse ; the high state of cultivation to which the island has at- 

 tained^ has no doubt extinguished many species which formerly 

 existed upon it. I did not observe a single plant of any arbores- 

 cent species of Willow^ although Salix fragilis, and the mild and 

 graceful S. alba, are recorded as growing there. The most com- 

 mon timber-trees growing in the hedgerows are XJlmus suberosa 

 and U. montana, the latter not near so common as the former ; 

 no U. campestres but what were in situations where they had 

 evidently been planted. 



In exotics^ the Fuchsias grow to large bushes^ and are for the 

 most part true species. The Hydrangea grows to a large size^ 

 and has .the calyx blue, probably from the quantity of iron in 

 the soil. Camellias thrive well as a common evergreen, but I 

 did not see so many of those two old favourites, the Orange and 

 the Myrtle, as, from the mildness of the climate, I might have 

 expected. Coniferous trees (if I may judge by what came under 

 my observation) will not grow for any great length of time ; they 

 grow rapidly Avhen young, but when they get to a respectable 

 size, they become stimted in their growth, get unsightly, and 

 prematurely decay. 



MUEAL PLANTS. 

 By George Jordan. 



Some observations on some of our mural plants may not be 

 uninteresting to the readers of that useful periodical the ' Phy- 

 tologist/ 



Mural plants were undoubtedly originally rock-plants, for they 

 grew there long before any walls existed ; but as walls are com- 

 posed of similar materials, lime and sand, they become a suitable 

 location for many plants, which flourish there equally well as 

 they do in their natural habitats, from whence they .migrated 

 to decorate our walls and the roofs of our dwellings. Amongst 

 those emigrants, some flourish, others languish in unmitigated 

 misery to the end of their existence ; and as it is with the hu- 

 man race under adverse circumstances, cling to life with the 

 utmost tenacity. But I restrict my observations entirely to 



