346 WANDSWORTH PLANTS. [Novembev, 



servers, that the geographical and statistical relations of plants 

 are subject to considerable change. Advancing intercourse with 

 distant countries, and facilities of locomotion between remote 

 parts of the same country, have not slightly disturbed the pre- 

 vious relationships that existed both in the vegetable and in the 

 pohtical kingdoms. The British Flora, during the last half- 

 century, has received an accession of upwards of 300 plants, 

 most of which have unintentionally been conveyed to our shores ; 

 only a few of these are " escapes from cultivation." This is 

 about one-fifth of the estimated number of all the phsenogamous 

 plants growing spontaneously in Great Britain. If the aliens 

 and doubtful species be withdrawn, the proportion of the new 

 comers to the genuine Flora of the Island will be about one- 

 fourth. 



It is not convenient, to junior botanists especially, that such 

 a large proportion of our spontaneous vegetation should be en- 

 tirely ignored by botanical historians. It may be urged that 

 these plants are not British ; but admitting this, there may be 

 several botanists and plant-collectors who do not know what is 

 British and what is exotic, and who may wish to know some- 

 thing about the species they may chance to stumble on. A plant 

 though not British may be worth notice and investigation. 



It may be granted that this is a sutficient answer to the ques- 

 tion. What is the use of enumerating those stragglers which ap- 

 pear and disappear with most provoking uncertainty ? 



But further, the preceding account of the largest inroad of 

 aliens ever recorded, will be of some use to the systematic sta- 

 ticians themselves. By it they may enlarge, amend, modify, or 

 correct the lists of " plants occasionally found wild on ballast," 

 in places where now the " garden-flowers grow wild," or lists of 

 species which have been erroneously recorded as growing, etc., 

 or the list of " doubtfully distinct and of ambiguous plants." 



The compiler would be gratified to learn that it had been 

 available in aiding the learned compilers of the London Catalogue 

 to amend their lists ; but he will be quite as much delighted to 

 hear that it has been useful to the less knowing or simpler por- 

 tion of the fraternity, who value plants simply on their own in- 

 trinsic merits, and not exclusively by their accidental qualities of 

 native birth, indigenousness, aboriginal descent, etc. 



The rule adopted by common-sense men in judging of the 

 value of domestic animals, and even higher classes, in the scale 



