114 REVIEW. [Mciy, 



Sonchus asper, an offshoot from S. oleraceus, Potamogeton prce- 

 longus, and Polypodlum calcareuin. 



The Fritillary is still abundant near Oxford. The Snowflake, 

 . we regret to state^ is nearly extinct there : it is to be feared that 

 ^ its old station opposite Blackwall produces it no longer. The 

 common Broom^ the common Heaths, and the Bilberry are not 

 found near Oxford ; the first-mentioned only rarely : cultiva- 

 tion has probably extinguished them. Digitalis purpurea and 

 Solidago Virgaurea are also Oxford rarities. Chlora perfoliata 

 occurs on wet clays in two localities near Oxford. In the Isle of 

 Wight this plant occurs indifferently either on the clay or chalk : 

 we have seen it on the very stiffest and wettest clay between 

 Alum Bay and the Fort near Yarmouth. 



We give the following extracts, which will be as interesting to 

 our readers as they are to ourselves. — " Since the tables were 

 constructed, it has been shown that some of the plants therein 

 included as species are but varieties : thus Professor Buckland 

 has shown the specific identity of Trifolium pratense and T. me- 

 ^diuni; of Festuca prate7isis and of F. elathr, etc.'" Again: "Al- 

 though not immediately connected Avith the Flora of Oxfordshire, 

 the following fact, which has been brought under the notice of 

 the writer since the foregoing remarks were written, appears to 

 be worthy of notice here. AVriting to my father on the subject 

 of the Bee Orchis {Ophrys apifera), G. C. Oxendon, Esq., of 

 Broome Park, Kent, remarks, that ' for forty years of my life a 

 certain field on this estate was under the plough, and after this 

 it was laid down for grass, and the third year after it was thus 

 laid down there appeared in it at least a hundred Bee Orchises : 

 more in fact than existed in a circuit of five miles round.' This 

 appears to be analogous to such instances as that of the appear- 

 ance of Sisymbrium Irio among the rubbish left after the fire of 

 London in 1677 \_Qy. 1667?], as related by Ray. A similar oc- 

 currence has been observed by Mr. Baxter in Oxford (see Bax- 

 ter's ' Phsenogamous Botany,' Sisymbrium). The phenomenon is 

 still more difficult of explanation in the case of the Bee Orchis, 

 from the rarity with which perfect seeds are found in that plant, 

 and it is not apparent how the pseudobulbs, by which the plant 

 is propagated, could have been introduced." 



