BOTANY 



duced into Berks, Middlesex and Bucks, and are now a conspicuous 

 feature in the clover and corn fields, and by the roads and railways, their 

 feathered fruits being carried by the wind over ever-widening areas, and 

 thus yearly make a westerly advance into fresh country. 



The hoary cress first appeared in our county on the rubbish heaps 

 at the sewage works. At that time some portion of the dried refuse was 

 sold for manure, and in this way the cress has been carried to widely 

 separated stations. The plant is supposed to have been introduced to 

 Britain with the fodder brought by the vessels which conveyed the un- 

 fortunate Walcheren expedition, and is now a pest to the agriculturist in 

 the Isle of Thanet. A semi-maritime species of grass, Glyceria or Pani- 

 cularia distans, was also very common about the sewage works in 1879, 

 but I cannot learn that it has spread to other situations. The washing 

 of skins in our streams by fellmongers, etc., has led to the introduction 

 of several foreign species. The seeds which had become entangled in 

 the wool of foreign animals, in the washing have been separated and sunk 

 into the mud. When the river Nene was dredged, the surface of the mud 

 scattered on the adjoining meadow showed several foreign species which 

 flourished for a season or so, but partly from the cold season, and I think 

 chiefly from the stress of the keen competition for the soil by the strong 

 native species of grass, these outlanders soon disappeared. About our 

 corn mills a few foreign casuals may be seen : these include Couringia 

 orientalis, Plantago arenaria, Santia {Polypogon) monspeliensis. 



Another factor in the introduction of foreign casuals must receive 

 brief notice, as it is quite conceivable that some of the plants thus 

 introduced may become permanent features in our flora. I refer to 

 our railways. At the present time no inconsiderable acreage of North- 

 amptonshire is taken up with the sidings, embankments, and cuttings of 

 the various railway systems which traverse the county. The railway 

 banks often give one a better idea of the native flora than the surround- 

 ing ground which is under cultivation, as our competing grasses and 

 other strong species have not had time to exert their overcrowding pro- 

 perties, while the drainage and the sunny exposure often give plants 

 which are fond of an open situation facilities which the more uniform, 

 sheltered, shaded, and highly cultivated arable or pasture country no 

 longer affords ; hence we see the hare's-foot clover [Trifolium arvense), 

 the mouse-ear hawkweed [Hieracium Pilosella), the field scorpion grass 

 {Myosotis versicolor), doing extremely well on railway banks. Moreover 

 when a cutting has been made through clay, the moist surface acts as 

 a sticky fly-paper does, and light seeds which are borne by the wind 

 become attached, and in a short time the clay is covered with vegetation 

 which is in many instances foreign to the district round. These clay 

 cuttings afford us the bee orchis {Ophrys apifera), the melilot [Melilotus 

 officinalis), the rose bay willow herb [Epilobium angustifolium) , and the 

 Crepis taraxacifolia already referred to, while the abundance of coltsfoot 

 and thistles show what an advantage the feathery pappus-borne fruits 

 have over the more heavy ones which are dependent upon other means 



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