17 



I was pleased to observe on the bank of a meadow 

 which descends towards the Eiver Yeo, in the parish 

 of Bradford Abbas, an enormous quantity of the 

 little white-flowered Trefoil (Trifolium subtermneum), 

 which is in such profusion, that when in flower it quite 

 whitens the side of the hill, and it might well furnish 

 specimens to the herbaria of every English botanist, 

 and yet an abundance of the plant would remain. 



I also noticed that the Monkshood (Aconitum 

 Napellus) had got upon the banks of the river Yeo, 

 near Bradford Abbas, and very probably will increase 

 to the extent it has done on both sides of the stream 

 near Whistle Bridge, where any stranger might report 

 it as " truly wild," and certainly giving a peculiar 

 feature to the banks of the brook. 



In like manner I observed in Portland, on the rocky 

 ground below Bow-and- Arrow Castle, that the Borage 

 (Borago officinalis) had spread in an extraordinary 

 manner by hundreds, giving a wide-spreading azure-blue 

 tint to the ground, and suggesting not as Darwin has 

 stated, that in the struggle for existence, that " the 

 fittest" maintain their hold upon the soil but the 

 strongest, and it may be often said the same in the case 

 of the Docks, the Oraches, Goosefoots, and Nettles, 

 the coarsest and the ugliest. 



Unfortunately the operations of Man destroy the 

 beauties of Nature, and cultivation introduces useless 

 if not noxious plants, which alter the vegetation of a 

 country, and obstinately flourish as villainous though 

 showy weeds, in spite of every attempt to dislodge 



