392 ON THE BOTANY OF [^April, 



Their chief interest is that they belong to a district which has 

 never been botanically investigated {pace Mr. Lees). If any 

 botanist has ever visited these parts of Worcester-, Stafford-, and 

 Shropshires, he has not recorded the results of his investigations, 

 whatever these may have been. 



As we have no intention of permitting any of our labours in 

 the behalf of science to descend into oblivion, if we can prevent 

 this undesirable consummation, we record them for the benefit 

 of our contemporaries and of posterity. We visited Clent late 

 in the year, viz. September, and resided there during the greater 

 part of that month, and left before the middle of October, hence 

 we are unable to say anything about the sprin'g flowers. Many 

 of the summer flowering plants were observed with the entire 

 autumnal vegetation of the district ; but, as a systematic cata- 

 logue or a scientific description of species would be unreadable, 

 the most prominent plants will alone be noticed, and they will 

 be arranged rather by the places where they grow, or by their 

 habitats, as our ancient botanists would say, than by any modern 

 classification : thus, first, the vegetation of the hills ; second, that 

 of the woods ; third, that of the fields (the cultivated ground) ; 

 and, fourth, that of the bogs, marshes, and watery places. 



The most remarkable plant of the Clent Hills is the Fox- 

 glove {Digitalis puiyurea). The Latin or scientific name is en- 

 closed in a parenthesis, or it is italicized : our scientific readers 

 know that this is necessary, because the scientific or Latin name 

 is recognised by all who are acquainted with the science; the 

 vulgar, or popular, or English name, is variable. This may not 

 be the case with the Foxglove, though it has more names than 

 one, but it is so with several plants which have to be entered in 

 this list. The Foxglove grows everywhere in this island where 

 the soil is more or less gritty or sandy. On these hills it luxu- 

 riates ; wherever the turf is pared off, or the Furze burnt, there a 

 colony of Foxgloves immediately springs up ; and, as they are 

 biennials, i.e. plants of two years' duration, the seedlings flourish 

 on the bare soil when the turf is broken, or they germinate 

 among the ashes of the burnt Furze. We have seen tall plants 

 of this species here and there, but we never saw any so gigantic 

 as in plantations on the Lickey Hills. Their average height was 

 two yards, and, consequently, many were higher than that esti- 

 mate. The Moth Mullein, two species ( Verbascum Thapsus and 



