650 BOTANICAL SKETCHES. [December, 



some garden." This is not improbable. The herb Pennyroyal 

 has been cultivated from time immemorial in gardens. I fear 

 we must consider the introduction of the Linaria Elatine into 

 gardens as a Lancashire peculiarity. 

 The banks about New Brighton 



"Want not the wild Thyme's spicy sweet 

 To bathe in dew the roving feet " 



of such as sniff the caller air from the Irish Sea. 



Recent botanists, and some rather ancient ones too, make two 

 species of our wild creeping fragrant Thyme. The following 

 description of the two forms or species is drawn up from fresh 

 plants collected on a kind of table- land on the New Brighton 

 sand-hills. 



Thymus Serpyllum. Stems prostrate, woody, with numerous 

 branches. Leaves obovate or oblong- elliptical or ovate, tapering 

 at the base, ciliated with long white fringes. Flowers in very 

 short clusters. The two lower calyx-teeth are subulate and erect, 

 the three upper teeth are dilated and reflexed. Corolla pale pink 

 or rose-colour ; upper lip entire, truncate ; lower lip with three 

 equal, obovate, spreading lobes. Stamens about as long as the 

 lobes of the corolla. 



The entire plant has a paler colour than the following. 



Thymus Serpijllum, T. Chamcedrys, Fr. Leaves oblong. Flowers 

 in dense heads of a deep red. Corolla and stamens rather more 

 elongate than they are in T. Serpyllum. The herbage is deep 

 green. 



Note. — I found both flowering at the same time and in close 

 proximity. 



Anagallis tenella was observed, but sparingly, in a moist place, 

 not far from the western end of the town. There was a small 

 pond of water near it, with some Myriophyllum in it. The sides 

 of this little pond or pit were covered with numerous plants of 

 Samolus Valerandi, a plant held in some honour by the ancient 

 religiosi (Druids) of Britain. 



The maritime Plantago, P. maritima, was well established on 

 a red sandstone rock below the town, where I vainly expected to 

 find the Sea Catchfly growing as plentifully as I have seen it on 

 the sands or shingle at Itchin ferry. The Buckshorn Plantain, 

 P. Cor'onopus, occurred here and there on dry places. 



