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Common Plants.—List A. 
There is truth in the old Scottish proverb, viz. “An ass may 
speer (ask) more questions than a doctor can answer,” or “ A fool 
may ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer 
in seven years.” The questions may be very proper, such as a 
wise man would not be ashamed to ask, and still it might be very 
difficult to give satisfactory answers. The question “ What are 
common plants?” is often put. It is our purpose to state what 
we believe is meant in ordinary parlance by this term, and to 
offer a list of common species, to which we have recently directed 
the attention of the readers of the ‘ Phytologist.’ One of the 
ancients says that it is a tedious and long process to teach by pre- 
cept, but an easy and short one by examples. Let us apply this 
maxim, for it is one, to the process of defining. It is clearer 
and easier to show what we mean by examples than by any logical 
or scientific definitions whatever. What are common plants? 
The Daisy (Bellis perennis) is a plant common in most pastures 
whether wet or dry, let the chemical constituents of the soil be 
what they may. But this common species is not common in every 
habitat. Itis not common, for example, in cultivated fields, nor 
im marshy or boggy places. It certainly is not an aquatic, rarely a 
marsh or woodland plant. Yet it is universally admitted to be one 
of the commonest plants of Europe, as well as of the British Isles. 
The Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclymenum) is also a common plant, 
but it is only so im its peculiar habitats, viz. woods and hedges ; 
it does not grow on the open heath or bare common. Common 
Fumitory is a never-failing weed in cultivated places, whether fields 
or gardens: it grows where the soil is frequently turned over, 
and only there. The White Deadnettle (Lamium album) is a road- 
side (viatical) plant only found about hedges, ditches, rubbishy 
places and such-like habitats. The greater Bindweed (Convol- 
vulus sepium) is limited to hedges and woods; it is a septal or 
a sylvan plant, which does not extend to the extreme northern 
parts of this island, but is very abundant in the south. The Pond- 
weeds (Potamogeton, etc.) are confined to ponds, ditches, streams, 
lakes, and rivers. They are aquatics and grow sometimes in deep 
and sometimes in shallow waters. Several of them are reputed 
common, and they are found wherever they meet with circum- 
stances suited to their peculiar necessities. The common sorts 
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