1859.] WANDSWORTH PLANTS. 341 



not originate even the suspicion that it may possibly be only a 

 doubtful native. The principles on which investigations on the 

 origin of our plants are carried out^ are as unsatisfactory and un- 

 certain as many of our species are. It is marked by liay, rarius, 

 " rather rare," — by Haller, ' Flora Helvetica/ rare ; and it is 

 rare in Germany. In England it passes muster unquestioned.^ 



The Leguminiferce were next to the Crucifers, the most abun- 

 dantly distributed at this station, and the best established. Of 

 the Medicagines scarcely one-half have been determined. They 

 were more plentiful at Battersea than at Wandsworth, but as 

 they cannot be identified, and as they are not likely to be per- 

 manent, much need not be said about them. 



MelUotus parviflora and M. messanensis have both been seen 

 permanently and plentifully. The former has straggled into the 

 cultivated patches in the neighbourhood; the latter has not 

 been seen beyond the single station at the steamboat-pier. M. 

 parviflora has been reported from Ireland, and from the vicinity 

 of Manchester. It is likely to attain, in British lists, the same 

 place which Trifolium resupinatum, etc., have obtained. In the 

 last edition of the London Catalogue, it is very properly classed 

 with the latter plant, but it is improperly said to owe its intro- 

 duction to " ballast " or "^ cultivation." In none of its recorded 

 stations can its origin be attributed to these popular causes. Its 

 origin at Wandsworth has already been determined. It is found 

 in France, and there are no geographical, or rather, climatical 

 reasons against its ultimately establishing itself as a spontaneous 

 British plant. 



It should be stated that some of the Medicagos which abound 

 at Wandsworth, etc., were collected on the west side of the Itchin 

 in 1853, along with some of the Plantagos which grow also in 

 the vicinity of London. 



Trifolium resupinatum was one of the commonest of these 

 exotic species. It grew both in the swamp, on the bank, and 

 also on the hard gravelly part of the waste ground. This plant 

 has, as is well kuown^ been reported from several places in the 

 south of England as also from Lancashire. From the latter 

 place Sisymbrium pannonicum has also been sent. Trifolium re- 

 supinatum has been sent to me twice from Sydenham, the first 



* It turned up again this summer (1859) at Wandsworth, but very sparingly. 



