A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



My friend, the late Mr. H. C. Watson, in his Cybele Britannica, 

 mapped out our island into plant provinces and enumerated the species 

 which occur in each. What have been called types have been thus 

 established. Certain species have been found to extend over all Britain. 

 These are denominated as of the British type. Other species occur 

 chiefly or exclusively in England. Some are limited to Scotland or the 

 north of England and Wales. These are of the Scottish type w^ith which 

 we are not concerned. Plants which are found chiefly in the south-east 

 of England and the counties adjacent to the German Ocean are classified 

 as of the Germanic type. These include the chalk plants of which we 

 have so many examples in Sussex including the insectiform Orchids. 

 Another group of species is met with in the south-west of England and 

 Wales, and occasionally extending far along the western and southern 

 district. This forms what is called the Atlantic type, and is of peculiar 

 interest to us in considering the distribution of the flora of this county. 

 A few of them call for our special notice. One of these is the Cornish 

 money wort {Sibthorpia Europcea), an exquisite little pink trailing 

 flower, which, extending from the Scilly Islands into Cornwall and 

 Devon, passes over west Sussex and occurs in east Sussex near 

 Waldron, and no further in England eastward. This is a fact seemingly 

 inexplicable. Scarcely less so is the case of the yellow bartsia {Bartsia 

 viscosa), which beginning in Cornwall extends through Devon, Dorset 

 and Hants, misses west Sussex, and reappears near Bexhill Common, 

 where it has been established for more than fifty years. It is not found 

 further eastward. 



The question as to whether certain plants are or are not truly 

 native is often asked, but is one on which botanists differ very widely. 

 Mr. Watson divides our introduced plants into Denizens, Colonists, Aliens 

 and Casuals. Denizens may be described as maintaining their habitats, 

 as if native, but liable to the suspicion of having been originally intro- 

 duced by human agency. Colonists as weeds of cultivated land, seldom 

 found except in places where the ground has been adapted for their pro- 

 duction and continuance by the operations of man. Aliens as certainly 

 or very probably of foreign origin. Casuals as stragglers from cultivation. 

 We have examples of all, which will be differentiated in our account of 

 the Sussex botanical districts, and we need only observe that certain 

 foreign species may be noted which are gradually taking up their abode 

 with us, and have evidently come to stay, as for instance those farm pests, 

 the clover dodder [Cuscuta trifolii), not long known here and very destruc- 

 tive ; Bauxbaum's speedwell [Veronica Bauxbaumii), spreading rapidly in 

 cornfields, and the lesser wart cress [Senebiera d'uiymd), becoming common 

 all along the Sussex coast, which manifests itself when trodden under 

 foot by its pungent smell. To mention one other only, the sand mustard 

 {Diplotaxis muralis), which is now becoming frequent, especially by the 

 line of the London and South Coast Railway. This I first noticed but a 

 few years ago, and observing it also near Torquay was able to add it to 

 the flora of Devon. 



