1857.] REVIEWS. 69 



plant has some considerable influence on the aspect of this por- 

 tion of the Dorsetshire coast ; but it will be better to state this 

 in the words of the author of the article. " The most striking 

 feature however of the botany of this beach is the abundance of 

 Schoberia fruticosa. It grows to a considerable size, and many 

 of the stems exceed three inches in circumference. This plant, 

 with the various species of sea-purslanes, constitute by far the 

 greater part of the vegetation for several miles. Of the sea- 

 purslanes, the shrubby orache {Ati^iplex portulacoides) is the 

 most abundant; the spreading halberd-shaped orache {A.patula), 

 and the spreading narrow-leaved orache [A. angustifolia) , are both 

 common ; the grass-leaved sea orache [A. Uttoralis) occurs much 

 less frequently .^^ 



Several plants of rather frequent occurrence are noticed, of 

 which Conium maculatum, Chcei^ophyllum temulentum, Aster Tri- 

 polium, Glaux maritima, Tussilago Farfara, and Sedum acre, may 

 be quoted as examples. To those botanists who are interested 

 in the subject of the distribution of species, the most attractive 

 part of the article will be the names of plants once produced on 

 this bank, but which have subsequently disappeared from this as 

 also from other localities. The author remarks " that no traces 

 of Vicia IcBvigata have been found (observed) on the Chesil Bank, 

 a plant discovered by Mr. Hudson on the beach at Lodmoor, 

 near Weymouth, and said to have been found on the Chesil Bank 

 and in Portland, by Sir J. Cullum ; nor have repeated searches 

 on the beach at Lodmoor of late years been more successful. 

 These were the only stations recorded for this species in the 

 whole world ; and there seems now little doubt of its being ex- 

 tinct.'' 



A necrology of British plants would not be altogether devoid 

 of interest. Crambe maritima is also one of the defunct on the 

 Chesil Bank ; item, Glaucium phceniceum, Althaea officinalis, a 

 common plant in the salt-marshes of North Kent, and in many 

 other similar localities, and Cladium Mariscus. A history of the 

 past and present botanical productions of Battersea fields, Hamp- 

 stead Heath, Woodford, and other places in the immediate proxi- 

 mity of London, of which accounts of their vegetation in bygone 

 times are extant, would not be uninstructive. In these localities 

 and other places changes have been going on which gradually 

 and almost imperceptibly have effected great alterations in their 

 vegetable productions. The disappearance of several plants from 



