510 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [July, 



It may be added, that from our own pleasure-ground nursery- 

 were sent, with the sanction of the First Commissioner, and 

 without detriment to our grounds, various hardy ornamental 

 trees and shrubs, particularly evergreens : — to Battersea Park, 

 4013 j Hyde Park, 2976: Victoria Park, 2300; total, 9289, . . . 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Nasturtium officinale at Clent. 



Ill the March number of the ' Phytologist' is a statement, signed 

 " A. N.," that " Nasturtium officinale fails in a large circle round Clent," 

 and that, " except where planted, it appears nowhere for miles." Allow 

 me to caution your correspondent against hasty negative generalizations. 

 In the streams on the west of the villages of Clent and Hagley, Nasturtium 

 officinale is common, and although it occurs less freqiiently among the 

 hiUs, it can scarcely he said to be rare there, as I have, during the last 

 fortnight, seen it in foiu' distinct localities, where it is not at aU likely to 

 have been planted. I have no doubt that a diligent search would greatly 

 increase the number. Wm. Mathews, Jun. 



Edgbaston House, Birmingham, May 17, 1858. 



Leucojum ^stivum. 



I have seldom enjoyed a greater botanical pleasure than in finding 

 yesterday, for the first time, the Leucojum in the Plumstead Marshes. I 

 had always missed it hitherto by seeking for it above Greenwich, accord- 

 ing to the fallacious indication (no doubt true once) of Curtis and Smith.. 

 I was delighted to see that in two different swamps, both aheady well 

 known to me, this beautiful plant exists in such profusion that ah the 

 botanists in England would scarcely exhaust it ; and as both places are 

 within the practising-ground of the Arsenal, they are not hkely to be 

 di'ained and built over. J. S. M. 



May 17, 1858. 



ISATIS TINCTOmA. 



I have had the unlooked-for good fortune of finding a new habitat 

 for Isatis, near West Wickham, in Kent, uot far fi-om the cart-track 

 which leads along th(i foot of the hhls to Keston Church, a neighbom-hood 

 otherwise notable for its abundance of Daffodils and Latlircea. The Isatis 

 being in the midst of a meadow ripe for the scythe, it may have been 

 there, and may remain there, an indefinite time, without being ever 

 aUowed to exercise its wonderful power of propagation by seed. Whether 

 it spreads easily by root I do not know. 



In the same walk I found Trifolium striatum, at a comer of Keston 

 Heath, and Polygonum Bistorta, in splendour and profusion in a meadow 

 adjoining the lane from Bromley to Hayes. A hop-ground close to the 

 same lane exhibited, two months ago, nearly the finest show of Veronica 

 Buxbaumii that I ever saw in England. Gr. S. M. 



June 7, 1858. 



