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enormous size: Loudon, in his ‘ Arboretum,’ gives us some particu- 
lars about it. It is rather early to say much about the two Orchides, 
O. militaris and O. tephrosanthos, but I am sorry to observe that, 
from some cause or other, the number of plants seems to diminish 
annually; the chief cause of this I was once an eye-witness to, for 
a fine sloping bank (so steep that you would think the farmer could 
derive no great benefit from disturbing it) was actually being stubbed 
up and burnt for manure; the man and the monkey Orchises being 
both literally roasted and burnt alive; and upon this very bank I had, 
in former years, through the kind direction of my esteemed friend, Mr. 
Baxter, of Oxford, noticed them growing in plenty. Merrett,* in his 
time, and How, tell us that not only these Orchises, but several of 
the Ophrydes grew abundantly upon the “ chalky hills overlooking the 
Thames, both on the Barkshire and the Oxfordshire sides of the river, 
between Cawsham [Caversham] and Wallingford ;” and, as regards 
the Ophrydes, the very spot where I had formerly seen abundance of 
the bee, &c., has been ploughed up and turned into corn-land. There 
is one tribe of plants in which this neighbourhood is quite deficient, 
viz., ferns; there are scarcely any here, so far as observation goes: I 
find my list contains but four. 
Clematis Vitalba Nasturtium officinale 
Anemone Pulsatilla 
nemorosa 
Adonis autumnalis 
Ranunculus auricomus 
Caltha palustris 
Aguilegia vulgaris 
Chelidonium majus 
Fumaria officinalis 
Capsella Bursa-pastoris 
Tberis amara 
Lepidium campestre 
Armoracia rusticana 
Draba verna 
Cardamine pratensis 
impatiens 
Arabis thaliana 
Barbarea vulgaris 
* Merrett’s ‘ Pinax,’ p. 85, (1666). 
terrestre 
Sisymbrium officinale 
Erysimum Alliaria 
Reseda lutea 
Helianthemum vulgare 
Viola odorata 
b. alba 
hirta 
canina 
a. sylvatica 
tricolor, b. arvensis 
c. Curtisil 
Polygala vulgaris 
Saponaria officinalis 
Silene inflata 
Lychnis Flos-cuculi 
Sagina procumbens 
+ How’s ‘ Phytologia Britannica, (1650). 
