646 BOTANICAL SKETCHES. [December, 



pleased to see it^ though its nomenclature be rather unsteady and 

 its relationship to the Cabbage somewhat obscure. 



Cakile maritima or Sea Rocket, appeared here and there on 

 the flat sands at the base of the hiils^ a considerable distance be- 

 yond New Brighton. It maintains its common characters and 

 habits everywhere, from the south of England to the shores of 

 Lancashire, etc. Why its locality, '' south of England V is 

 queried in the ' Handbook of British Plants,^ perhaps the author 

 will tell us. It certainly occurs in the Isle of Wight. 



The only other Cruciferous plant noticed was a form or variety 

 of Cardamine pratensis, a plant distinguished from the usual 

 form by a very long, flexuous, angular stem, long radical leaves, 

 with small, rounded, toothed leaflets. Leaflets of the stem-leaves 

 linear, elliptical, elongate, numerous. Elowers large, white. 

 Fruit four-angled, flattened. This, which was in flower and im- 

 mature fruit, was collected in a ditch, near a pasture-field, two 

 or three miles from the western end of New Brighton. It may 

 possibly be a variety of C. amara, or a cross between the two 

 species. 



Reseda suffruticulosa, L., is now extensively naturalized near 

 the very centre of New Brighton. This is one of the exotic 

 species which are rapidly extending their limits in England. In 

 Dr. Dickinson's ' Flora of Liverpool ' it is described, " Sparingly 

 on sand-hills beyond New Brighton. ^^ It is not now scarce. 

 New Brighton has probably, like the plant, enlarged its bounds, 

 for the town now extends far beyond the place where this wild 

 Mignonnette groAvs abundantly. 



The plant of special interest to us was the New Brighton Vio- 

 let, noticed in the Liverpool ' Flora,' as V. pumila, Vil., and de- 

 scribed under the title of V. canina in the most recent descrip- 

 tive works on British Botany. Nyman in his ' Sylloge Florae 

 Europsese ' does not enter England nor Britain among the names 

 of the countries where V. pumila grows. 



The New Brighton Violet has longish, flexuous, round stems, 

 both the central and lateral ones productive. Leaves deeply 

 cordate at the base, crenate, leathery, acuminate, the upper ones 

 pointed. Stipules lanceolate, toothed or fringed. Sepals lanceo- 

 late, protracted and notched at the base. Capsules large trian- 

 gular. Seeds large, smooth. 



A correspondent to whom I sent a specimen, informs me that 



