42 Mr. J. Hogg on the Ballast-Flora of 



The plant which I have identified with Trifolium Michelianum 

 (Savi), and which I found this summer at West Hartlepool, is 

 very handsome, and in some respects resembles T. ele^ansoi the 

 same author, which Mr. Winch had observed many years ago on 

 the Tyne ballast. My species differs, however, from T. elegans 

 (Savi) by its stem being hollow, and by its broad ovate stipules. 

 It is a large and strong plant, a native of Italy, and has most likely 

 been brought with ballast from Leghorn ; also Galega officinalis, 

 an elegant plant with blue flowers, originally from Spain. A 

 very pretty variety of Ononis arvensis, with a snow-white flower, 

 I observed in the same place : it has a smaller standard-petal, 

 and rounder than that of the common pink Ononis^ without the 

 small terminal point, slightly hairy and less keeled on the back. 

 Also a curious variety of the common white clover, Trifolium 

 repens, from the same ballast-heap, deserves notice : it may be 

 termed var. foliaceum. From the specimens it will be seen that 

 the segments of the calyx terminate in leaves with strong ribs 

 and teeth, thus causing very much the appearance of curled 

 parsley. This sort of clover is known to run into varieties. 

 Withering mentions one as having " small heads of leaves grow- 

 ing out of the flowers^' (vol. iii. p. 633, 4th edit.), and Dr. 

 Johnston, in his 'Flora of Berwick,' vol. i. p. 162, describes 

 another variety, which he observed on Holy Island. "The 

 flowers,^' he says, " are supported on rather long stalks ; the 

 calyx has six leaf-like cut segments, while the style is dilated 

 into a large ovate leaf, toothed on the margins.^' And Mr. 

 Norman mentions another " form of the Dutch clover, in which 

 the place of petals is supplied by little leaves ;" this he noticed at 

 Seaham. Mine, however, seems to differ from the other three 

 abnormal forms chiefly in having the sepals fully transformed 

 into leaves; and I take it to be the vav. phyllanthum of Seringe, 

 which is found at Geneva and Berne. 



The ballast of the localities named being very commonly chalk 

 with flints, we find many plants which grow naturally in that 

 and other calcareous formations. But several orders of plants 

 are without one representative : for example, there are no Or- 

 chidese, not even the Ophrys muscifera, 0. apifera, 0. aranifera, 

 Herminium Monorchis, Orchis militaris, O. fusca, and others 

 which rejoice in a chalky soil. Nor are there any Saxifragse, 

 or Sedums, except ^. acre. 



No roses'^ have I met with, or Huhi, or Ranunculacese. Of 

 the Umbelliferse I have found several more exotic species ; but 

 they are difficult to determine, as well as more of the Cruciferse 



* Mr. Winch only records one rose in his hsts, which is ^osa alba. He 

 found it " on the banks of the Tyne, below Bill Quay." As it is " a native 

 of Germany and South Europe," it seems to me more probably to have 

 been an outcast from some neighbouring garden. 



