340 WANDSWORTH PLANTS. [November, 



ever since ; it has been extremely plentiful^ and a troublesome 

 weed. It appeared also by the riverside near Kew. In 1857, I 

 observed it near Hyde, Isle of Wight. I do not believe that in any 

 of the recorded cases it was an escape from cultivation. This plant 

 has not hitherto been recorded as European, though I have a spe- 

 cimen marked from " near Geneva.'^ Lr.patiens fulva, which has 

 been known in England as a spontaneous plant (I may not say 

 native) for a century, does not find a niche inNyman^s ' Sylloge.' 

 The I. parviflora increases more rapidly than /. fulva, as I have 

 ascertained by inspection. I observed the /. fulva for twenty 

 years, — it is nearly twice that space of time since I first made its 

 acquaintance, — and it has not extended its limits very consider- 

 ably. The /. parviflora, which grows as well on hard, gravelly 

 soil as in rich, moist spots, is very likely to prove a permanent 

 acquisition to the Flora of England. 



Saponaria vaccaria, Linn., has been already recorded as an 

 accidental and uncertain visitant. It is not nearly so common 

 about Wandsworth and Battersea as the common Elax, Linum 

 usitatissimum, is; yet it appeared plentiful for several years. 

 The seeds of the former are economical ; those of the latter are 

 not so. The common Elax will aluays be found on rubbish-heaps, 

 by roadsides, and among other cultivated crops. The Saponaria 

 vaccaria is possibly not capable of so wide a range as the Elax; 

 and probably for good reasons, because it is not so useful. But 

 it is quite as plentiful as Silene Armeria, which has long been 

 honoured with a place in our British floral catalogues. 



Lythrum hyssopifolium appeared at W^andsworth for three suc- 

 cessive seasons, and only for three. The first, 1853, only one 

 stray plant, not more than a finger's length high, was seen in the 

 rut of a cart-wheel ; next year a good many close to the water, 

 now and then covered by it ; m 1855 there were thousands on the 

 verge of the swamp and up the bank also, some of them very 

 luxuriant. I transplanted a few, and they throve Avell in the 

 garden ; but they did not reproduce themselves. Since 1855, I 

 have not seen a single example of the species at Wandsworth : 

 they have all perished. Erom my own observation and acquired 

 knowledge of the distribution of this plant in England, I infer 

 that it is one of our uncertain species. I do not say that it is 

 an alien, although I know but few or any of our reputed British 

 species of greater uncertainty and of rarer occurrence. I will 



