1858.] ON MURAL OR WALL PLANTS. 529 



riant. The Linarias supply us with several instructive examples 

 of a diversity of habitat among the same plants. L. vulgaris 

 is specially a hedge (septal) plant^ hut it is not confined to 

 banks and hedges. It flowers beautifully on walls^ where, how- 

 ever, it does not grow quite so luxuriantly as in its more usual 

 habitat. L. purpurea is another example. This plant has only 

 recently been recorded as a British spontaneous production, and 

 its recorded habitats are walls. We have seen it on walls and 

 on roofs for several years, say twenty-five or thirty years ; but 

 we believe it has been noticed as a weed in gardens, especially 

 in the Isle of Wight. It may be assumed that if the plant 

 was introduced by design, its first habitat with us was the 

 garden, where it was cultivated as an ornamental plant ; hence 

 it probably migrated to the walls. It may be assumed that 

 this migration was accidental. It is difficult to conceive how 

 it could have located itself on walls, if its introduction was 

 accidental. As it is one of Miller's plants, either a plant in- 

 troduced or patronized or first noticed by him, and as he was 

 at that time the greatest floriculturist in this country, it is not 

 improbable that it owes its distribution in this country chiefly 

 to him. There are few examples of its spontaneous growth 

 except on walls. It is not in the Flora of Germany, nor in 

 that of the north and centre of France. Hence it may be said 

 to be a plant of the south of Europe. It was not noticed 

 among us until a recent period, and as a spontaneous product 

 only v.'ithin the last thirty years or so. It may be said to be 

 a mural plant among us. 



We have another plant of the same genus, L. Cymbalaria, 

 which appears in this country to be restricted to walls. It is 

 said by Dillenius to be an escape from Chelsea Gardens, and 

 it is very probable that the plants of this species about London, 

 did owe their origin to this"" original locality. We should like 

 to know how this plant was preserved or cultivated in Chelsea 

 Gardens. Was it a border flower, a rock plant, or was it kept 

 in pots ? The plant in question was known and recorded as a 

 denizen of this country nearly two hundred years before the 

 publication of Dillenius's edition of Ray's ' Synopsis,' where this 

 plant is noticed, and long before the existence of Chelsea Gar- 

 dens. It grows in the same habitats on the Continent as here. 

 In the 'Flore d' Alsace' its habitat is thus described, "Tres- 



N. S. VOL. II. 3 Y 



