1893] The Leeks of Wales. 385 



most happy tour, seemed to renew the old fascination that 

 the leeks of Celtic Britain and Ireland had ever possessed 

 for him, since he first suggested the non-indigenousness 

 of Allium babingtonii in Con naught. Among his letters 

 written at this season to Mr. Griffith, of Bangor, is one 

 in which this association is evident. 



May ijth, 1893. 



DEAR MR. GRIFFITH, Will you kindly allow me to ask for your 

 help in a matter where I do not know where to apply unless to you. 

 Have you kept any memoranda of the Heights attained by plants, on 

 the Welsh Mountains ? If so, please tell me to what elevation does 

 Ulex nanus (Gallii) attain? Also the bracken (Pteris aquilina), and any 

 other conspicuous and common species. I want to compare heights a 

 little with the West of Ireland. And here let me say what a fine piece 

 of work there is here for any botanist who would carefully measure the 

 heights attained on the mountains of Wales. We have no reliable data, 

 and I wish you would undertake it. It would be a most useful contri- 

 bution to your native botany. Again, a list of all the plants of all 

 North Wales is much wanted. Better still if South Wales were also 

 given with it. Do you know of anybody working at the subject? 

 Have you seen Juncus tenuis growing ? And has any second locality 

 been discovered ? 



You used to cultivate several onions and leeks. If you still have 

 them in your garden, I should be very much obliged if you would kindly 

 spare me a few living roots of Allium sibiricum, which I wish to compare 

 with my plant from St. David's Head. I am growing Allium babing- 

 tonii. And I very much want Allium scorodoprasum, which I think you 

 told me is grown in cottage -gardens in Wales. Could you be so very 

 kind as to send a few, say 6 roots. They will travel safely, by parcel 

 post. ... If you cultivate also A. schoenoprasum type, I should like 

 to see it. And do you find any leek in Welsh gardens like A. ampelo- 

 prasum or A. babingtonii ? Do you ever think of coming to Dublin ? 

 We should be very glad to see you in Ireland. And this is a really dry 

 and safe season. 



His contributions to " Guy's Pictorial Guide " (short 

 papers on the Mammals, Freshwater Fishes, and Botany 

 of the South-West of Ireland) were written during May. 

 They are in a more discursive style than he often adopted, 

 and are probably the only articles in which he put forward 

 an opinion as to the origin of Ireland's present flora and 

 fauna. On this vexed question he maintained that the 

 arrival of our animals and plants must have taken place 

 after, or at any rate towards the close of the Glacial Epoch. 



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