THE OLD WALLS OF WINCHESTER 51 



Ferns do not flourish in Hampshire as they do in the 

 moister climate of the west of England, but a few inter- 

 esting species may be seen on our walls. On the ruins 

 of the Norman chapter-house the polypody fern is 

 abundant ; indeed, in company with the handsome red 

 spur-valerian, it covers the wide coping which protects 

 the western front. Often in summer-time the plant 

 appears to wither and almost to disappear ; but with 

 the first rains of autumn the masonry is again green 

 with the beautiful pinnatifid fronds. So with Thur- 

 burn's Chantry at College. The stone roof is covered 

 with the polypody fern. On the walls of the Close, and 

 on those of College and St Cross, the attractive little 

 wall-rue is comparatively common, and in several 

 places the rarer maidenhair-spleenwort may be seen. 

 On one secluded line of masonry, hidden away from 

 public observation, it has taken possession of the wall 

 and flourishes as happily as in the damper atmosphere 

 of Devon or Cornwall. We should not expect to find in 

 Hampshire, at least in any abundance, the scaly ceter- 

 ach, which sometimes covers the stone walls in the 

 west ; but several solitary plants, known only to a few 

 individuals, grace the walls of Winchester and manage 

 to maintain a difficult existence. 



The pellitory-of-the-wall (Parietaria officinalis, L.), 

 as its name indicates alike in Latin and in English, is so 

 called because of its characteristic habit of clothing with 

 its shaggy foliage old walls and structures. In its 

 purely native surroundings in prehistoric times, before 

 buildings were erected by human agency, the species 

 doubtless flourished on rocks and cliffs ; and in such a 

 position I have noticed it at the entrance to the Tilly- 

 Whim caves, near Swanage, in Dorsetshire. Needless 



