A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



(Hottonia palustris), the water starworts (Callitriche obtusangula and hamulatd), the frog-bit 

 (Hydrocharis Morsus-rante), the bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris), the medic (Medicago 

 arables), the star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum), the dodder (Cuscuta europ<sa), and 

 the barberry (Berberis vulgaris). 



Dropmore Park has enclosed within its domain some very interesting botanizing ground, 

 where the marsh St. John's wort (Hypericum elodes), the violet Viola lactea, the shoreweed 

 (Littorella juncea), the marsh honewort (Apium inundatum), the sundews Drosera rotundifolia and 

 D. longifolia, the horse-tail Equisetum sylvaticum, and other local species flourish. 



Bulstrode Park, once the home of the botanist and patron of botanists, the Dowager 

 Duchess of Portland, and where Doctor Lightfoot, the author of the Flora Scotica, was 

 her librarian, has altered very much since that time. The old mansion, in the courtyard of 

 which John Hill, the author of Flora Britannica, about 1760 noticed the small dodder (Cuscuta 

 Epithymum) growing upon ' mother of thyme,' was burned down many years ago, but the 

 ornamental waters have growing by them the yellow loosestrife (Lysimacbia thyrsiftora], the 

 water soldier (Stratiotes Aloides), and the milk parsley (Peucedanum palustre), which are doubtless 

 relics of the botanical collection made by her Grace. The old chalk pit near Gerrard's Cross, 

 so well known to the seventeenth and eighteenth century botanists, is probably now enclosed 

 in the park, but is very much altered for the worse, as a growth of grass has apparently 

 destroyed the orchid Herminium Monorchis, which has disappeared, but the park still affords 

 the hawkweed (Hieracium murorum), the bramble Rubus rudis, the calamint (Calamintha 

 Nepeta), and the neighbourhood affords the broom-rape (Oronanche Rapum-genistie), the climb- 

 ing bindweed (Polygonum dumetorum), the pink (Dianthus Armeria), the catchfly (Silene ang/ica), 

 and the crane's-bill (Geranium pyrenaicum). 



About Beaconsfield, Wilton Park and Seer Green occur the Solomon's seal (Polygonatum 

 multiflorum), the wood-rush (Juncoides or Luzula Forsteri), the sandwort (Arenaria tenuifolia), 

 the rose Rosa systyla, the eyebright (Euphrasia stricta), the hawkweed (Hieracium sciaphilum), 

 the black spleenwort (Asplenium Trichomanes), and the charad (Nitella flexilis). Lepidium 

 ruderale occurs by the roadsides, Chenopodium hybridum in garden ground, and Barbarea 

 intermedia in arable ground. 



At the historic Salt Hill where Sir Joseph Banks used to botanize and where he gathered 

 specimens of the clover Trifolium subterraneum, which still grows there, with T. striatum and 

 T. arvense, the buck's-horn plantain (Plantago Coronopus), the bird's-foot (Ornithopus perpusillus), 

 the bur parsley (Anthriscus vulgaris), and till lately the brown-rape Orobanche Rapum-genistts. 



The arable fields here are noticeable from the abundance they contain of the nettle 

 Lamium hybridum, which is so rare in the greater part of the county. They also contain the 

 parsley (Carum Petroselinum), the larkspur (Delphinium Ajacis), the goosefoot (Chenopodium poly- 

 spermum and C. murale), the grasses Panicum Crusgalli and Setaria viridis, the caraway 

 (Carum Carvi), and the calf's-snout (Antirrhinum Orontium). 



The meadows between Eton and Wyrardisbury have a considerable growth of the bell- 

 flower (Campanula glomerata}, the great burnet (Poterium officinale"), the dropwort (Spiraea 

 Filipendula}, and the grass Kceleria cristata. 



The extensive brickyards at Slough have much changed the surface of the soil, and large 

 quantities of street sweepings and rubbish are brought from London and deposited here, with 

 the result that a large number of adventitious species appear from time to time, and a few 

 species become permanently established. The foremost of these is the cress Lepidium ruderale, 

 which has spread for considerable distance, and less frequently the flix-weed (Sisymbrium Sophia), 

 and the goose-foots Chenopodium opulifolium, C.ficifolium, C. Vulvaria and C. murale. Among the 

 casuals noticed have been Coronilla varia, Setaria viridis, 5. glauca, Sisymbrium altissimum, S. 

 orientate, Camelina sativa, Medicago Falcata, Melilotus arvensis and M. alba, Salvia verticillata, 

 Euphorbia Esula var., Bunias orientalis, Lepidium Draba, Phalaris canariense, Linum usitatissimum, 

 Cannabis sativa, Amsincksia lycopsioides, (Enothera odorata, Datura Stramonium and D. Tatula, 

 Panicum Crus-galli, and P. miliaceum. 



The rank luxuriance of Chenopodium rubrum, Polygonum maculatum and the Atriplices is 

 a striking feature of these malodorous heaps of rubbish. The railway has been the means of 

 conveying the Oxford ragwort (Senecio squalidus) into our area, and in fact it has now spread 

 to Southall in Middlesex. A sedum (S. Cepaa) is said to grow near Bulstrode Park, where it 

 is doubtless an escape from cultivation, and an Indian spirasa has naturalized itself near Stoke 

 Common. By the railway near Messrs. Veitch's nursery the Californian Eschscholtzia has also 

 established itself. 



On rubbish heaps near Eton Mr. Everitt has found Plantago arenaria t Asperula arvensis, 



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