NOTICED IN NORTH WALES. 9 
are always made of shrubs which will endure for a considerable 
period, and which are hardy enough to bear the climate of this 
country. That this shrub, the Spirea, is capable of an exist- 
ence in our climate for a long period, the hedge near Cann Office 
sufficiently proves; and this is all the proof obtainable of the 
nativity of perhaps one-third of the British plants, and whose 
nativity has never been questioned. It is not in Bingley’s Cata- 
logue. Not far from this point we noticed Ribes Grossularia 
also in the hedge. 
At Garthbibio we gathered a variety of Valeriana officinalis, 
with more than the usual number of leaflets. We would thank 
Mr. Babington for a specimen of what he calls V. sambucifolins. 
Almost all the plants we have examined correspond with his 
character of the latter plant. The Welsh one noticed near Cann 
Office differed from the common form only in having more leaflets, 
so far as we were able to judge from a mutilated specimen. About 
a mile further on we noticed luxuriant specimens of Polypodium 
Phegopteris, growing with Athyrium Filix-femina and Lastrea 
Filiz-mas. These ferns were distinguishable at some distance, both 
by their aspect and hue. Near the same place we saw the yellow 
rosette leaves of the Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris); and on 
the left of the road, in the coppice skirting the hill and bordering 
the river, about three or four miles from Mallwydd, we noticed 
fine plants of Epipactis latifolia. The road from Garthbibio 
passed over a portion of the chain of the Berwyn Mountains, 
which oceupy the eastern side of Merionethshire, and branch 
into Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. They are chiefly com- 
posed of schist, and the vegetation is not generally of a very 
interesting character. 
At Mallwydd we of course visited the churchyard, to inspect 
the most extraordinary Yew-tree in Wales, if not in England,—a 
land remarkable for enormous trees of this kind. This immense 
tree is undivided for two or three feet from the ground, and at 
this height it separates into six huge branches. When visited by 
Mr. Aiken, about sixty years ago, its main trunk was 22 ft. 6 in. 
in girth, and the branches were respectively 10 ft. 9 in., 8 ft. 10 in., 
7 ft. 8in., 7 ft. 6in., and 5 ft. 9in.; and the radius of the branches, 
which spread like a canopy over a large portion of the churchyard, 
was 39 feet. Our measures and estimated spread, at the end of 
a period of nearly sixty years since, are of course considerably 
Ness VOL. I. c 
