518 General Results of a Gardening Tour : — 



difference in temperature. The plants on the schistus, in 

 the lake district, like those on the calcareous hills of Derby- 

 shire, are much more various than on the sandstone plains ; 

 but we have not had leisure to examine the hilly districts 

 with sufficient minuteness to state which plants are peculiar 

 to lime and which to schistus. We suspect, however, that 

 the species limited, or absolute to each will be found very 

 few. Elevation, moisture, and temperature have much more 

 influence on native vegetation than soil. The unity of the 

 flora of the roadsides the whole way from London to Dum- 

 fries is beautifully preserved by the bramble and the common 

 polypodiums. These last are very numerous in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Birmingham, on the coarse sand ; and equally 

 so among the lakes between Newby Bridge and Keswick, on 

 the soft compact clay. In shady situations, for example, 

 about Levens, near Milnthorpe, and on the east side of Win- 

 dermere, where the road passes Storr's, the Polypodium vul- 

 gare has established itself on the trunks and branches of even 

 healthy vigorous-growing trees, in a manner quite remark- 

 able, and which reminds us of the descriptions given by 

 travellers of the epiphytes in the forests of Demerara and 

 South America. Some sycamores and limes, by the side of 

 the public road at Levens, have their trunks and branches 

 thickly covered with long black moss, in which this fern 

 flourishes most luxuriantly : and a fine oak in the garden of 

 the poet Wordsworth, at Rhydal Mount, is similarly clothed, 

 though not to the same extent. In the drier districts of 

 England this polypodium confines itself to the decaying 

 trunks of old pollards. The wild strawberry is very common 

 on old banks on the sandstone, and also on the clay, and it 

 has grown and spread so vigorously in the neighbourhood of 

 Bowness, and on the banks of the Esk between Longtown and 

 Langholme, as to form on the stone fences strawberry walls, 

 like those of Mr. Byers (Vol. V. p. 437.), in both places. 

 Other walls at Levens, and among the lakes, are completely 

 covered with ferns, which spring from every joint, and from 

 the turf coping. Part of the park fence at Rhydal Hall 

 affiDrds an example. 



As the white stellaria accompanied us from London to 

 Manchester, so the blue campanula took us up there, and 

 has travelled with us to Dumfries. Not that the stellaria had 

 deserted us, or that the campanula was not in the hedges all 

 the way from London, but that each plant was only con- 

 spicuous when in flower. Between Liverpool and Lancaster 

 the flowers of the common ragwort began to make their 

 appearance, and have since become more conspicuous by 



