50 Flowers and their Pedigrees, 



escaped from cultivation in a suitable climate, some- 

 times American straylings, and sometimes high 

 Alpine species requiring a particular granite, basalt, 

 or limestone soil — a soil perhaps to be met with in 

 our islands only on one or two scattered Welsh or 

 Scottish hills of the requisite height, ^he case of the 

 hairy spurge, however, is very different from any of 

 these. It is a southern European and Western 

 Asiatic plant, and it spreads along the Mediterranean 

 basin from the Caucasus to the Pyrenees ; but it 

 nowhere comes any nearer to Britain than the valley 

 of the Loire. This is what gives it such a special 

 interest in my eyes. It is not found in Brittany, it is 

 not found in Normandy, it is not found on the oppo- 

 site coast of Picardy, it is not found in Kent or 

 Essex ; but it suddenly reappears here, out of all 

 reckoning, on Claverton Down. 



If the case of the wood-spurge were a solitary one, 

 it would be easy enough to give a ready explanation. 

 The neighbourhood of Bath is known to be one of the 

 warmest spots in England, having, in fact, its own 

 hot-water supply always laid on. This is a plant of 

 warm countries. A bird, let us say, once brought 

 over a single seed, clinging to its feet or feathers ; an 

 exotic flower, imported for the shrubberies of Prior 

 Park, was packed in earth containing young spurges ; 



