1858.] BOTANICAL SKETCHES. 549 



of fragrance and beauty. These smells and sights were presently 

 exchanged for those of Bridge Street^ Lambeth, New Cut, Union 

 Street and High Street, Borough. The locomotive, however, soon 

 conveyed us into more pleasant localities. On a level with the 

 uppermost chimney-pots, and above some, the machine soon con- 

 veyed its living load through the Borough, New Cross, Lewisham, 

 Blackheath, and underground to Charlton, Woolwich, and Plum- 

 stead ; hence through meadows and deep cuttings to Erith, Green- 

 hithe, Northfleet, and Gravesend ; from Gravesend across Milton 

 meadows and along the margin of the subterranean canal to 

 Strood and Rochester ; hence to Cuxton, so pleasantly and snugly 

 nestled under the lordly domain of Cobham Park^ famed for 

 botanical rarities; up the shore of the muddy Med way to Snodland, 

 where we disembarked, and where our botanizing was to begin. 



The North Kent line of railway is one of the cheapest lines 

 which have their termini in London, and it is of the utmost con- 

 venience to botanists. In the earlier part of the day there are 

 trains every hour, cheap trains too, an object of some considera- 

 tion to the amiable fraternity bearing the vasculum and digging- 

 tool. It passes through localities rich in plants or in botanical 

 associations. Honour Hill, through which there is a deep cutting 

 for the rail, has been distinguished by the special notice of Curtis, 

 the honoured father of British illustrative botany. Blackheath 

 has been, and still is, the locality of several rare plants. Eltham 

 is celebrated for its rare species, and above all for the eminent 

 Dillenius and the two Sherards, his munificent patrons. Plum- 

 stead marshes yield in plenty two of the rarest of British Grasses ; 

 also the Summer Snowflake, discovered by some of the energetic 

 members of the Greenwich Botanical Club. Greenhithe, North- 

 fleet, Gravesend, etc., have been places of celebrity among the 

 simplers since the times of Gerard, Johnson, and the early fathers 

 of British local botany. 



What botanist has not heard of Johnson's journey into Kent 

 in 1629, on the 13th July, when the adventurous party (they 

 went by water, as many still-living botanists have done since, 

 along the silent highway now in bad repute for naughty smells) 

 were overtaken by a tempest which so terrified four of the com-_ 

 panions that they put in at Greenwich to refresh themselves and 

 to recover from their fright. Johnson and the other heroic 

 botanists made their way to Gravesend, where they breakfasted 



