302 WOAD. {^October, 



asrauch as it is in the plant-world more especially that these 

 startling anomalies most frequently present themselves. Who, 

 for instance, but must have noticed the strange and unaccount- 

 able growths which frequently make their appearance upon newly 

 cleared ground, in fields, in woods, and on railway-embankments, 

 the progenitors of which must be looked for far afield, if indeed 

 they are to be found in the neighbourhood at all. Of such facts, 

 more than one recurs to my memory, but I will limit myself to 

 a single instance which has fallen lately under my own observa- 

 tion, in the hope of inducing other observers to put upon record 

 any circumstances they may have noted bearing upon the inter- 

 esting point in question. 



In May last I had occasion to go in company with a brother- 

 naturalist to Birdlip Hill, near Gloucester, in search of a rare 

 land-shell {Clausilia Rolphii), which has certainly been found 

 there, though we were not so fortunate as to discover a specimen. 

 Two years had elapsed since our last visit, and in the interim the 

 ground had become much changed in appearance. The fine 

 Beech-woods which then clothed the slope of the hill below the 

 ' Black Horse ' (the hostelry on the summit) had been felled, and 

 a rank herbage had sprung up, which by no means facilitated 

 our search for the shell we were in quest of. But of this leafy 

 growth, which made green the space that had been formerly bare 

 and brown under the shade of the Beech-trees, the staple con- 

 sisted of dwarf Sycamore-plants, from two to three feet in height, 

 which flourished in profusion, and seemed to promise in due 

 time to establish a wood of Sycamore-trees on the spot, — yet no 

 parent tree Avas observable, nor is the Sycamore known to grow 

 in the immediate neighbourhood ; nevertheless I was assured by 

 an intelligent man residing on the spot, that whenever the Beech- 

 woods are cleared to any extent, the Sycamore immediately makes 

 its appearance. 



Whence come the seeds of these intruders ? Have they lain 

 dormant in the earth, or have they been wafted in the air ? 



I am aware that it is usual to attribute such growths to a 

 power of unlimited vitality in seeds, to transport by birds, winds, 

 and waters ; but after all, these things remain an enigma, to ex- 

 plain which successfully may perhaps necessitate the recognition 

 of a more recondite agency than any that has hitherto suggested 

 itself to the minds of philosophers. 



Elmore Court. 



