1857.] CHEDDAR PLANTS. 241 



When I had procured a sufficient quantity of plants^ I turned 

 my attention towards the general botany of the place^ and first 

 to the botanical lion of the cliffs, Dianthus ccesius. I am happy 

 to say that it is not eradicated, and that it is still there in no 

 inconsiderable quantity. It grows plentifully in the inaccessible 

 parts of the cliffs, where it is impossible to get at it except by 

 being let down by a rope from the top ; and whilst it seeds in 

 that situation and the seeds vegetate below, there is not much 

 danger of its being exterminated. I came upon perhaps twenty 

 plants which might have been got with the greatest ease, but I 

 contented myself with two. Upon my inquiring the reason of its 

 being less plentiful than formerly, my guide informed me that 

 the boys look for it, and when they find a plant they gather the 

 flowers and place a stone before it to make it less conspicuous 

 from below, and then they offer to show it to tourists for the sake 

 of a trifling reward. I am afraid that Meconopsis cambrica will j^^/^ 

 be extinct in a few years, as I saw but little of it, and it does not, /g 



as far as I could see, entrench itself where it cannot be dislodged. 

 I think that I may assert that I saw every rare plant which is 

 recorded as growing at Cheddar in the Kev. T. F. Ravenshaw's 

 list in the ' Phytologist ^ for June last (1857), and in addition 

 Polystichum aculeatuni, Sedum rupestre, Saxifraga hypnoides, Li- 

 nuni catharticum, and the pretty little Teesdalia nudicaulis in 

 seed. The Polystichum was growing in an exposed situation, and 

 was of a yeUow but healthy colour, and had fronds 20 inches long. 

 Cystopte7'is fragilis -wsiS growing amongst the stones, Asplenium 

 Ruta-murarid and Ceterach officinarurfl out of the clefts of the 

 rocks, but sparingly, whilst Asplenium Trichomanes -stas in both 

 positions in abundance. Polypodium vulgare was growing upon 

 the rocks, but its small triangular fronds showed that it was not 

 at all at home, and that it preferred the rough bark of a tree to 

 the smooth face of a limestone cliff. The situation in which I 

 met with Sedum rupestre and Saxifraga hypnoides I should think 

 was not the place where they originally grew ; they probably grew 

 near to the summit of the clifl", were dislodged by accident, and 

 washed down. I saw many seedling Yews, but the bottoms of 

 the cHffs are never likely to be clothed with evergreen by then' 

 means, as they are sold to tourists to take away as mementos. 



The inaccessible parts of the highest rocks are inhabited by 

 jackdaws, ravens, and several species of hawk, whose cackling, 



N. S. VOL. II. 2 I 



