252 FLORA OF THE CHESIL BANK AND THE FLEET. 



both shores of the Fleet, from Smallmouth to Abbotsbury ; 

 considerable parts of these I have gone over more than once. I 

 hope, therefore, that my notes on this unfrequented coast may 

 be of some little interest. Time forbids that my remarks should 

 extend to the southern part of the Chesil Bank lying between 

 Portland and Smallmouth. 



I should just like to say in passing, that if any lady or 

 gentleman present should wish to combine scientific observa- 

 tion with really active exercise, all that could be desired in that 

 direction may be found by attacking the beach at Smallmouth 

 on a warm summer day and walking on the loose pebbles, from 

 thence to Abbotsbury a distance of about nine miles, or, 

 allowing for backslidings, say thirteen miles. 



The Chesil Bank and Portland form the extreme south- 

 western part of the West Channel sub-province, as defined by 

 the late Mr. Watson in his Cybele Britannica. We have scarcely 

 entered the Fleet at Smallmouth before we find, on a warm bank 

 facing towards the south-west, a galaxy of scarce plants of 

 southern and western distribution ; the following leguminosae 

 all grow there together, viz. : The Yellow vetch ( Vicia lutea, 

 L.), the Bithynian vetch ( V. bithynica, L., var. angustifolia, 

 Syme), the Yellow vetchling (Lathyrus Aphaca, L ), and the 

 Grass-leaved vetchling (L. Nissolia, L.). On the mud below 

 the bank just mentioned is the Creeping Marsh Samphire 

 (Salicornia radicans, Sm.), only recorded from twelve out of 

 Watson's 112 counties and vice-counties. Not far off is another 

 plant of southern distribution, Festuca uniglumis, Soland, the 

 scarcest grass, I think, of the Chesil Bank. 



The Callous Fruited Water-Dropwort ((Enanthe pimpinelloides, 

 L.), so frequent in this neighbourhood, but rare in many 

 counties, has a local interest which we should not forget. 

 About sixty years ago the Rev. W. Garnons detected this plant 

 on the moor at Smallmouth on which the Torpedo Works now 

 stand. He submitted it to the late Mr. Babington, Professor of 

 Botany at Cambridge, and this led to (Enanthe pimpinelloides, as 

 now understood, being firmly admitted to the British flora as a 



