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ADDITIONS TO OUR NATIVE FLORA 103 



others the soapwort known as "Bouncing Bet" grows 

 in extraordinary profusion ; while along the streams 

 the beautiful purple loosestrife is abundant. 



On the other hand, within comparatively recent 

 times several interesting species have found their way 

 here from America, and have comfortably established 

 themselves. Among these may be mentioned the 

 American wood-sorrel with yellow flowers, and the 

 little white Claytonia, now common in Wolmer Forest, 

 and as thoroughly at home as the English mouse-ear 

 chickweed. In 1822 John Stuart Mill, who delighted 

 in roaming over the country in search of wild-flowers, 

 discovered the American balsam, Impatiens fulva, 

 growing abundantly on the banks of the Wey near 

 Guildford. " At whatever period introduced," he says, 

 writing in 1841, "this plant is now so thoroughly 

 naturalised, that it would be pedantry any longer to 

 refuse it a place in the English Flora. For many 

 miles by the side of the Wey, both above and below 

 Guildford, it is as abundant as the commonest river- 

 side plants. It is equally abundant on the banks of 

 the Tillingbourne, that beautiful tributary of the Wey; 

 especially at Chilworth, where it grows in boundless 

 profusion." Since Mill's time the plant has consider- 

 ably increased, and is now frequently met with along 

 the banks of the Surrey streams. Another North 

 American plant, with ornamental yellow blossoms, 

 now occasionally to be met with, is the Mimulus^ or 

 monkey-flower. This handsome species is not un- 

 common in Hampshire, and the writer has met with 

 it near the source of the river Wey at Alton, where 

 it makes a splendid show, and along the course of 

 the Itchen, at Titchborne, Itchen Abbas, Avingdon, 

 Winchester, and elsewhere. Beside the tiny stream 



