530^ ON MURAL OR WALL PLANTS. [AugUSt, 



commune dans les murs de fortifications de Strasbourg;" in 

 the ' Flore des Environs de Paris/ " Vieux murs liumides " (our 

 habitat exactly) ; in the German Flora, " Auf alten Mauern, 

 selten" (on old walls, rare). Its establishment in Britain was 

 efiected at least three hundred years ago, probably more ; but in 

 all this time it has evinced no disposition to change its habitat ; 

 it clings to walls and ruins, and eschews banks and trees. It 

 may naturally be asked. What is the native country of this plant? 

 It grows all over the central and southern parts of Europe, and 

 everywhere on walls. Every recent writer on British plants, 

 including Hudson, who wrote a hundred years ago, distiDguishes 

 this plant by a star('^), a mark which, as is well known, indicates 

 that the plant before which it is set, is not originally of British 

 growth. 



Antirrhinum majus is found only as a serai-spontaneous 

 growth on some walls. Here at least (in the south of England) 

 it is not nearly so common as Linaria Cymbalaria ; the places 

 where it grows are not half so many, and the individual examples 

 do not amount to a hundredth part of the number of the com- 

 moner plant. I have never seen it growing wild but on walls 

 or on contiguous rocks. In this it agrees with Linaria Cym- 

 balaria. But on the other hand it is frequently cultivated as a 

 border flower, of which many varieties are handsome and popu- 

 lar. In the Parisian Flora it appears to be confined to the same 

 habitats as with us; for example, '^Assez frequemment subspon- 

 tane sur les vieux murs ; cultive dans les parterres." In Ger- 

 many, " Auf und an alten Mauern, im Hhein- und Mainthale, 

 in Oesterreich, Bohmen, etc." (old walls, Austria, Bohemia, etc.) . 

 Which country exclusively claims this plant ? It appears to be 

 equally common in England, France, and Germany. In neither 

 of these is it to be found wild. Is there a fourth country where 

 it is found wild ? or is it found wild anywhere ? 



Epilobum montanum, like Cerastium triviale, grows sometimes 

 on walls, as well as on open places, and in shady places, on spots 

 either dry or wet. I have seen Geranium pratense on the very 

 top of a limestone wall, very much altered in externals, but in 

 all essentials the same as in examples of the rich meadow or 

 roadside. It is probable that the two Pinks Dianthus pluma- 

 rius and Z>. Caryophyllus have migrated from the border, bed, 

 or parterre, and established themselves on the surrounding walls. 



