204 BOTANICAL SKETCHES. [September, 



Dozens of specimens were examined, collected on all parts of the 

 Downs between the beacon and the lighthouse, and from thence 

 to Sconce Point, and all had these organs four-parted. Spiranthes 

 autumnalis is very rare on the Downs, and is probably so because 

 eaten by the sheep. Tamarix gallica grows by the mill not far 

 from Yarmouth, but it has the appearance of having been planted 

 there, or of having sprung from a cultivated plant. Campanula 

 glomerata on the Downs is scarcely an inch high, and abounds. 

 The vegetation of the Downs is dwarfish, exceedingly minute, 

 but very nutritious, and the mutton of this part of the island is 

 deservedly celebrated. This part of the island is exposed to 

 every wind that blows, and even in summer the wind here is 

 both brisk and keen ; hence the plants are very much stunted in 

 their growth. Borago officinalis is found by a roadside close 

 to the town of Yarmouth, and Iris foetidissima in lanes both 

 on the west and east of the Yar. These two rare plants 

 are characteristic of the botany of Yarmouth. The Madder 

 {Rubia peregrina) abounds on the western side of the river 

 Yar, and the Gladwin Iris on the eastern. The late Dr. 

 Bromfield met with a few specimens of this Iris in which the 

 flowers were of a uniform lemon-yellow colour, verging upon 

 white in the segments of the perianth, without any purple co- 

 louring except a few faint veins of a somewhat deeper colour 

 than the ground-colour. This variety was discovered in a wood 

 near Yarmouth. The Madder {Rubia peregrina) is also a very 

 scarce plant in the south-eastern counties of England. The Isle 

 of Wight, Dr. Bromfield remarks, is its eastern limit ; it is found 

 in abundance nowhere in the south of England beyond this. It 

 is plentiful in the west of England about Bristol ; it grows most 

 abundantly in woods and hedges on the west of the Yar, by the 

 way from Yarmouth to Freshwater. Chlora perfoliata grows 

 sparingly on the shelving steep bank which skirts Totland Bay, 

 and Crambe maritima at its base. To a stout pedestrian the 

 walk over the Downs from Freshwater Gate, by the beacon, on- 

 wards to the lighthouse at the extremity of the Needles, is pecu- 

 liarly exhilarating and healthful. 



The Downs are covered with the closest and shortest vegeta- 

 tion ; being partly saline it is cropped to the very earth by the 

 sheep which graze here. Excepting Furze, which grows on the 

 inland side of the Downs, there is no species of plant that 



