246 RARE PLANTS NEAR TRURO. 



Dill., in fruit ; and many of the commoner kinds. In the stream 

 may be found Fontinalis antipyretica, L. 



Pursuing the road towards Probus, a practised eye may detect : 

 Entosthodon Templetoiii, Schwaeg; Bryum Tozeri, Grreville; and 

 Bryum carneum, L. There 'are several species of Veronica growing 

 about this place ; some, preferring dry ground, are found on the 

 banks ; and others, flourishing best in water, may be looked for in 

 the streams. The Veronica Buxbaumii, Ten., is an annual, and 

 therefore can never be depended on as occurring on exactly the 

 same spot in two consecutive years ; but it will be found in the 

 vicinity. It is one of those plants which are not truly indigenous, 

 but which become so plentiful in a short time that they cannot be 

 distinguished from true natives ; like the little Ivy-leaved Snap- 

 dragon imported from Italy, which doubtless some of your readers 

 remember having cherished in a garden, and which now covers 

 some of the walls in the neighbourhood of Truro. 



At Candor, where the road crosses the stream, or, to speak 

 more correctly, where the stream crosses the road, grows the 

 pretty little Marsh Speedwell (Veronica scuteUata, h.), a plant 

 which, though not strictly a climber, has so weak a stem that it 

 can support itself only by the help of the surrounding foliage. Its 

 flower is described in the books as being of a flesh colour ; but 

 near this stream it has always been found of a pure white. The 

 leaves are tinged with brownish purple ; and the pedicels, when 

 in fruit, are remarkably reversed, which gives the whole plant a 

 straggling appearance. 



Further on in the same road grows, or grew a short time 

 since, a white variety of the Viola canina, L, The Dog Violet is 

 rarely met with without some tinge of blue on its petals ; but in 

 this variety the only colour, if colour it could be called, was the 

 palest yellow. 



In a marsh nearer Probus was once found the rare Lesser 

 Water Plaintain (Alisma ranunculoides, L. j. Whether there is any 

 left is doubtful, as cattle are constantly grazing on the spot. It is 

 distinguished from the common species by its smaller size, and its 

 larger flowers, and by its bearing the latter in umbels. By the 

 stream which percolates through this marsh grows an inconspicuous 

 plant of the Potentilla tribe — the Purple Marsh Cinquefoil (Co- 

 marum palusfre, L.J. Its petals have a very uncommon dark- 



