BOTANY 



banks and holts show abundance of Saiix purpurea, and the black poplars and limes are not 

 unfrequently the home of the mistletoe. The Bisham Woods have the toothwort Dentaria or 

 Cardamine bulbifera, its only known Berkshire station, and the local sedge Carex strigosa also 

 is found ; while there and at Cookham we have Hypericum Androscemum, Ranunculus Lingua, 

 Arabis perfoliata, Iris faetidissima, Juncoides Forsteri, Utricularia vulgaris, Lactuca virosa, 

 Hypericum montanum, Elymus europeeus, and the hornbeam (Carpinus) is native. 



Maidenhead Thicket, once notorious as the resort of highwaymen, and its vicinity 

 yields Rubus Gelertii, R. micans, Rosa systyla, Trifolium subterraneum, Ft/ago spathulata and 

 Ranunculus parviflorus. The meadows between Maidenhead and Windsor give/-. Ga//'z 

 erectum. 



The walls of Windsor Castle, although not so rich in mural plants as formerly since the 

 wall rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) has disappeared, still show the red valerian (Kentranthus ruber), 

 the wall lettuce (Lactuca mura/is) and the wall rue (Asplenium Ruta-muraria); and in the Home 

 Park and in some part of the private grounds the spotted medic (Medlcago arabica) is very 

 abundant. Campanula Rapunculus is quite naturalized in the private portion of the park, and 

 the snowdrop and the double daffodil are semi-wild. Near to and about the grotto Lactuca 

 muralis is common (Windsor Castle is built on a boss of chalk), and Geranium sanguineum and 

 Sedum dasyphyllum occur, but the two latter are doubtless introduced. Chara fragilis and 

 Potamogeton pusillum grow in the streams with Ceratophyllum, and I once found the latter 

 growing there in symbiotic union with a sponge. 



The beauties of the great park have so often been described that one need only say in 

 the sixteenth century Windsor Park was visited by the celebrated botanist De L'Ecluse, when 

 he recorded for the first time as Berkshire plants the heaths Calluna and Erica cinerea. Shortly 

 afterwards Johnson, the author of the second edition of Gerardis Herbal, found Rynchospora 

 alba there, while in later times Dr. Lightfoot, author of the Flora Scotica, a tutor of Queen 

 Charlotte's, and Dr. Goodenough, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, botanized there, the latter 

 recording some sedges from this locality in his classical monograph of this genus. The Long 

 Avenue, consisting of upwards of a thousand trees, chiefly of elm, planted in 1680, stretches 

 for three miles, and there is much in the wooded district in its upper portion to attract the 

 attention of the botanists, and its magnificent examples of oak and beech command the 

 admiration of all visitors. Herne's Oak fell in 1862 ; Queen Victoria had a cabinet made 

 of the wood. 



The country about Virginia Water is in the drainage area of a small stream which passes 

 into Surrey. On the turfy margins of this artificial piece of water grow Sagina subulata, 

 S. ciliata, Cerastium quaternellum, Myosotis versicolor var. Balbisiana and Plantago Coronopus. 

 By its sides it has Carex canescens, C. paniculata, C. echinata in very luxuriant condition ; 

 dcorus, Molinia varia and Bidens. In the lake grow Ranunculus peltatus, Potamogeton obtusi- 

 folius, P. alpinus, P. polygonifolius, Littorella, Eleocharis acicularis, Scirpus fluitans, Nitella opaca; 

 and in the Surrey portion, only so far as my observations go, Elatine hexandra var. sessi/is. In 

 damp shady places my friend Mr. Nicholson found for the first time a new hybrid of Scutel- 

 laria galericulata and S. minor, which has since been called S. Nicholsoni. 



The gravelly uplands of the park give Echium, Hieracium umbellatum, H. boreale, H. 

 sciaphilum, H. rigidum, Solidago, Erigeron acre, Cynoglossum officinale, Carex binerus, Cerastium 

 semidecandrum, Myosotis collina, Melampyrum pratense, etc., while Calamagrostis epigeios and 

 Dryopteris Thelypteris grow, or used to grow, in the marshy portions. 



The once celebrated and fashionable watering place of Sunningwell is still interesting to 

 the botanist for its historic piece of bog, which was a favourite hunting place of the botanists 

 of the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries, including Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Goodenough and 

 others. The bog, although it has suffered much from the encroachment of the railway and 

 by building operations, still affords Carex rostrata and C. canescens, C. dloica, C. Hornscbuchiana, 

 Scirpus ceespitosus, S. pauclflorus, S. fluitam, S. multicaulis, Eriophorum, Rynchospora alba, Ranun- 

 culus Lenormandi, Festuca ovina var. paludosa, and many other uliginal plants. 



The Loddon district, in addition to the preceding species, has also many other interesting 

 plants, among which may be given: 



Adonis annua, L. [Bunais orientate, L.] 



Ranunculus sardous, Crantz Viola lactea x canina 



Caproides (Corydalis) claviculata, Druce Sagina nodosa, Fenzl. 



Fumaria Boraei, Jord. [Malva pusilla, Sm.] 



[Barbarea praecox, Br.} [Oxalis corniculata, DC.] 



[Lepidum Draba, L.] Vicia gemella, Cr., var. tenuissima, Druce 



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