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338 BOTANICAL SKETCHES. [February, 



ence is by the London and South-western^, from Waterloo sta- 

 tion ; and the last^ but not the least, is by the London and South- 

 eastern line. Twenty years ago it would not have been believed 

 that passengers from the west end of London would go to Reading 

 by London Bridge, Croydon, Reigate, Dorking, Guildford, and 

 Farnborough; yet such has been the route of many travellers 

 during the last eight or ten years. For most botanists the Great 

 Western line is preferable, being shorter, and consequently 

 speedier than any other road. The best part of the upper portion 

 of the Thames Valley lies about ten miles further than Reading, 

 and the Great Western line alone affords access to this. Streatley 

 has long been celebrated in our botanical annals; Goring has 

 recently been noticed by geologists as that portion of the Thames 

 basin which has been fissured by what geologists call a great 

 convulsion, or cataclysm, which occurred in some geological pe- 

 riod or other, nobody knows how many thousands of ages ago. 

 The river flows through this gap, which separates the Chilterns 

 and Oxfordshire downs on the north side of the valley, from the 

 Berkshire downs, curiously enough called in some parts the 

 North Downs, because they are on the south side of the river (!). 

 These latter extend from this point by Farnham, Guildford, 

 Dorking, Reigate, Westerham, Maidstone, and Gravesend, again 

 to the Thames, ending in the Essex chalk, about Grays, Purfleet, 

 etc., which is only separated from the Kent chalk-hills by the 

 river. This tract of country on both sides of the river Thames 

 from Reading to Oxford has long been celebrated as one of the 

 richest botanical fields in England, South Kent scarcely excepted. 

 We were too late for the Orchids, as will appear from our short 

 list; — not short if the smallness of the area traversed be con- 

 sidered ; yet small when compared with the botanical fertility of 

 the tract. 



On leaving the railway station, and on going along the road 

 thence to Caversham Bridge and village. Erysimum cheiranthoides 

 was observed on rubbish on the right-hand, but it also occurred 

 here and there in many fields through which we passed ; and on 

 the left, abundance of Geranium pratense, beautifully in flower 

 and fruit ; also Symphytum officinale, both the white and purple 

 varieties ; Humulus Lmpulus and a Brassica, probably B. Rapa,^ 



* This plant, whether B. campestris, B. Rapa, or B. Napus, abounds in the 

 Thames Valley, and is described in the floral appendage to tlie ' Phytologist,' as B. 



