50 Flozvers and their Pedigrees, 



escaped from cultivation in a suitable climate, some- 

 times American straylings, and sometimes high 

 Alpine species requiring a particular granite, basalt, 

 or limestone soil — a soil perhaps to be met with in 

 our islands only on one or two scattered Welsh or 

 Scottish hills of the requisite height. The case of the 

 hairy spurge, however, is very different from any of 

 these. It is a southern European and Western 

 Asiatic plant, and it spreads along the Mediterranean 

 basin from the Caucasus to the Pyrenees ; but it 

 nowhere comes any nearer to Britain than the valley 

 of the Loire. This is what gives it such a special 

 interest in my eyes. It is not found in Brittany, it is 

 not found in Normandy, it is not found on the oppo- 

 site coast of Picardv, it is not found in Kent or 

 Essex ; but it suddenly reappears here, out of all 

 reckoning, on Claverton Down. 



If the case of the wood-spurge were a solitary one, 

 it would be easy enough to give a ready explanation. 

 The neighbourhood of Bath is known to be one of the 

 warmest spots in England, having, in fact, its own 

 hot-water supply always laid on. This is a plant of 

 warm countries. A bird, let us say, once brought 

 over a single seed, clinging to its feet or feathers ; an 

 exotic flower, imported for the shrubberies of Prior 

 Park, was packed in earth containing young spurges ; 



