Plants gromng on their superincumbent Soils. 415 



devoted and highly accomplished naturalist, Mr. Rootsey of 

 Bristol, I traversed a considerable portion of this district, and 

 was agreeably surprised to meet so many of my old acquaint- 

 ance of Orme's Head. The spiked speedwell and dropwort 

 meadow-sweet waved on the downs as on the mountain pas- 

 tures of Bodscallon ; the broom rape and bloody crane's-bill 

 sought here also the ledges of the cliff; from the crevices 

 depended the ^ira Theophrastz, the yew, the ash, and the 

 hawthorn ; and the brushwood below was wreathed with the 

 same pretty red convolvulus (C arvensis) which made the 

 corn fields of Llandudno so " unprofitably gay." In short, the 

 whole aspect of the place was so much the same, as to appear 

 a portion of Caernarvonshire suddenly detached from its 

 moorings, and transported 120 miles across the country; 

 and the catalogue which I had drawn up from a botanical in- 

 vestigation of that, two years before, might have equally served 

 as a Flora for St. Vincent's Rock. One prevailing exception 

 is the samphire of Orme's Head, which is not a tenant of inland 

 rocks, nor grows on any but the stormiest side of those on 

 which it is found, exposed to the jarring winds and dashing 

 spray. While, on the other hand, the Convallaria majalis 

 and C. Polygonatum, and the luxuriant Galium MoWngo, are 

 more suited to the rich woody and sheltered soil of Lee Wood, 

 and the soft inland breezes of Somersetshire, than the biting 

 air and exposed surface of Caernarvonshire, where they do 

 not spring. 



The basaltic ranges claim certain species, which, if not pe- 

 culiar to them, are at least most luxuriant when they are 

 grown upon whinstone soil. The native Gerania I have always 

 found thriving best in such districts. Geranium sanguineum 

 (blood-red crane's-bill), the most elegant of the genus, is richer 

 in its tints, and stronger in its stem, near Edinburgh, and on 

 the Carrick Shore of Ayrshire, than anywhere else through- 

 out the whole range of my botanical excursions. On moun- 

 tain-lime it is slender and straggling ; on the basaltic ledges of 

 Salisbury Crags, and beneath the " scaurs " of the Ayrshire 

 whin, it exhibits the same dense bed of flower, with a thick- 

 ness of stem, a compactness of leaf, and a hairiness of clothing 

 so different, as almost to mark it out as specifically different 

 from the G. sanguineum of North Wales and its lakes. The 

 Geranium sanguineum of Carrick extends nearly a mile along 

 the shore, in one continued tract of beauty, exhibiting a luxu- 

 riance superior to that of any other flower of distinguished 

 loveliness which our island produces. 



Geranium Kohertidnum (herb Robert), so common every 

 where, is more luxuriant in the same districts than any other. 



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