1858.] REVIEWS. 657 



Gymnadenia conopsea, Hahenaria bifolia, Epipactis palustris, TriglocJiin 

 palustre, Carex fidva and vesicaria, EriopJiorum latifolium, Equisetum syU 

 vaticum, and Lastrea Oreopteris.''' 



Some years ago a writer in the ' Pliytologist ' took some ex- 

 ceptions to tlie above account of the origin of the old Sorb-tree of 

 Wyre Forest, which account we remember having heard before, 

 as the Vicar of Wakefield remembered Jenkinson's account of a 

 cosmogony. The said writer, who took a different view of the 

 introduction of this tree, maintained the improbability of the 

 conjecture on the following grounds, which are hereby respect- 

 fully submitted to the consideration of the Vice-President of the 

 Worcestershire Natural History Society : — 



1. J. L. asserted that the recluse could not have brought the 

 tree so far, at least in a living state, or, in other terms, that it 

 would have died before he could have transported it from the 

 slopes of the Pyrenees to the slopes of the Severn, a distance 

 which could not have been traversed, in those medieval times, 

 in a short period. 



2. It was probable that he knew the tree, or he would not 

 have taken the trouble of carrying it or conveying it so far. 

 Also, it was more than probable that, knowing it, he would not 

 have thought it worth bringing, and therefore it was improbable 

 that he did bring it, for the following reasons : — 1, that the tree 

 is a hundred years old before it bears fruit, which he could hardly 

 expect ever to eat 5 and, 2, that the fruit, when produced, is of 

 so austere a character as to be uneatable. 



Hence J. L. suggested that, as the recluse could have had no 

 adequate motive for incurring so much toil in bringing and plant- 

 ing what would be absolutely worthless to him, therefore that 

 said recluse did not introduce said tree. Q. E. D. 



Another writer in the *^Phyto]ogist^ conjectured that the fa- 

 mous Sorb of Wyre Forest was obtained from the garden of the 

 elder of the Tradescants, who cultivated and kept a collection of 

 exotics in a garden at Lambeth. Some people believe that the 



last Friday of June, 1858, the writer of this notice, not of the/efe itself, but of the 

 occurrence of it, was favoured by one of the parties, who partook of these festivi- 

 ties with a plant not mentioned in the above list. I had in the first week of July 

 sent to me two species or forms of Pyrola, one usually called P. rotunclifolia {P. . 

 media /), and the other P. minor. The former is the rarer of the two Pyrolas that 

 are believed to grow in the forest. — A. I. 



N. S. VOL. II. 4 P 



