CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COKNISH FLOKA. 129 



tlie plants^ — Biotis candidisshna — has also been lost from every 

 other British habitat, although it still holds its own in one 

 favoured locality in Ireland. Matliiola sinuata, Latliyrus maritimus, 

 and ^'iiphoriia Peplis are among the plants which for some reason 

 yet unknown are gradually diminishing everywhere, and will 

 some day soon be expunged from British lists. 



Ranunculus ctrcmaius, Sibth. First mention of this local 

 Water-crowfoot will be found in a paper by Dr. J. C. Montgomery 

 in the "Transactions" of the Penzance Natural History and 

 Antiquarian Society, for 1854. Its only Cornish home was 

 Trengwainton lower pond, in the parish of Madron. In the 

 third of Dr. Ealfs' volumes, bearing date 1879, it is placed among 

 extinctions, the cause assigned for its disappearance being the 

 introduction of swans. 



Mathiola sinuata, R.Br., was first reported in Merrett's Pinax 

 Rerum Naturalmm, 1666, as growing "in the sands at Bude, near 

 Stratton." Since then Cornwall has always being reckoned 

 among the counties where it grows, but it does not appear that 

 any one has seen it on the mainland for more than two hundred 

 years. In 1853 it was recorded as having been found on the 

 Scilly Isles twelve months previous,* but it could never be found 

 there by the several botanists who have given special attention to 

 the flora of those islands. In the adjoining county it still 

 flourishes in a place or two which are fortunately away from the 

 track of the average collector. 



Sypericum linarifoUum, Vahl., was introduced into the flora 

 of Cornwall by the late Professor Babington, who found it on 

 July 19th, 1839, at Cape Cornwall, " on a steep slope above the 

 sea, between two prominent masses of rock, on the south side of 

 the promontory, before reaching the lower part which connects 

 the conical headland with the rest." It was duly recorded in the 

 Phytologist, for 1841. Strangely enough, although repeated 

 search has been made, no one has seen it there since. In Mr. 

 H. C. Bastian's list of Falmouth plants, already quoted, Mr. W. 

 P. Cocks is the authority for the plant near Budock church, but 

 here also there was either a confusion in identity or the plant has 

 failed in the struggle for position. 



*" wild flowers and ferus of the Isles of Scilly," by Misses L. and M. Millett, in 

 the " Transactions " of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1853. 



