256 FLORA OF THE CHESIL BANK AND THE FLEET. 



Common, close to the Fleet. It is very fine in one of Mrs. 

 Sparks' plantations near, where it attains four or five feet in 

 height ; elsewhere in South Dorset it occurs only, I believe, on 

 Puncknowle Common. 



The flowers of that rare and beautiful plant, the Marsh 

 Mallow (Althaea officinalis, L.), adorn, from July to September, 

 the inner shore of the Fleet between Langton Herring and the 

 Abbotsbury Swannery. It grows just above high-water mark 

 and well maintains itself. Fortunately for science, the rustics of 

 the villages bordering on the Fleet are ignorant, I believe, of its 

 valuable demulcent and emollient properties. The country 

 people sometimes gather the Common Mallow (Malva sylvesiris, 

 L.), for medicinal purposes, mistaking it for the Marsh Mallow. 

 Doubtless, however, the monks of Abbotsbury were acquainted 

 with its virtues, which were known to the ancients, and are 

 mentioned by Pliny and Dioscorides. The Swannery is believed 

 to be the furthest western station for the Marsh Mallow, as a 

 native, on the south coast of England ; it is probably extinct in 

 Devon, for, although recorded from Totnes upwards of 50 years 

 ago, there has been no confirmation since. It formerlv grew in 



O ' O 



Cornwall, but is now extinct there also. A. officinalis is a good 

 example of how our rarer plants become scarcer and scarcer, and 

 perhaps ultimately extinct ; it suggests the care which should be 

 taken to preserve them. Dr. Pulteney, writing some time 

 between 1765 and 1799 of A. officinalis, in his Catalogue, Ed. 2, 

 88, says that it was then to be found " on the seashore in several 

 parts of Purbeck, in Poole Harbour, north coast, and, as I have 

 been informed, about Portland and by the Fleets of Chesil 

 Bank." Unfortunately, it is now, doubtless, extinct at all these 

 stations, except " by the Fleets of Chesil Bank." 



We must not forget to notice two scarce Spurges, the Sea 

 Spurge and the Portland Spurge (Euphorbia Paralias, L., and E. 

 porilandica, L.), which spring up among the loose pebbles, here 

 and there, in some plenty. The Portland Spurge shuns the east 

 coast, and is of decided western type, following the west coast of 

 France, Spain, and Portugal. It is especially interesting to South 



