FLORA OF THE RAILWAY 117 



many a lowly annual ; while not infrequently the 

 railroad is the highway along which species trans- 

 fer themselves from one part of the country to 

 another. 



A most interesting example of the modern method 

 of travelling among plants may be recorded. For 

 many years past there has flourished on the walls of 

 Oxford a very rare member of the ragwort or groundsel 

 tribe, which rejoices in the not altogether attractive 

 name of Senecio squalidm, L. It is believed to have 

 originally escaped from the Botanic Gardens, where it 

 was cultivated by Bobart the Elder, the first Keeper 

 of the Gardens, about the middle of the seventeenth 

 century. Until the introduction of railways 5. sqttali- 

 dus, L., seems to have been satisfied with occupying the 

 ancient walls and buildings of the university town, 

 which came to be recognised as its adopted home, and 

 from which it received its English name of the Oxford 

 ragwort. But when the Great Western Railway 

 system was inaugurated it began to grow restless and 

 to migrate beyond the limits of Oxford. Along the 

 permanent way it extended itself, until in course of 

 time it reached Reading, where it occupied the railway 

 banks and waste places. Later on the Great Western 

 Railway line was extended by way of Newbury to East- 

 leigh, and once again S. squalidus, L., began to travel 

 southwards. At length it arrived at Winchester, and 

 last summer several plants might be seen blooming 

 happily beside the permanent way at the Great Western 

 Railway Station. 



A newly made embankment, even if composed of 

 chalk, will be quickly covered with vegetation. How 

 the seeds are conveyed to the virgin soil in such amaz- 



