144 Mr. Winch's Observations on his Flora. 



observed that, after the lapse of ten years, specimens of Lecanora atra, 

 portions of which I had chipped from a stone wall, had not again form- 

 ed the circular patches of crust, which is their natural mode of growth. 

 Considerable obscurity still hangs over the manner of the reproduction 

 of these stone-like plants, though it appears evident that the minute par- 

 ticles of the crusts of various species must be viviparous, for who can 

 believe that so common a plant as Lecidea incana, which covers walls 

 and rocks in almost every situation, can alone be propagated by spo- 

 rules or seeds from its shields ; for these shields, though sufficiently con- 

 spicuous, have been noticed but twice in England ; in Hampshire by 

 Mr. Lyell, and in Sussex by Mr. D. Turner. 



In the preceding pages, a few habitats of rare plants are 

 given on the authority of the works of Turner,* RAY,f Wilson^ 



* The complete edition of Turner's Herbal was printed by Birkman. It is a folio, in 

 black letter, and containing 512 figures of plants, but which are the same as used in the 8th 

 ed. of Fuchsius, printed in 1545. 



\ Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, by John Ray, 8vo., 3d ed. London, 

 1724. Edited by Dillenius. 



J Synopsis of British Plants, by John Wilson, 8vo. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1744 



Brown, in his Prodromus of Australian Plants, p. 490, has named a genus belonging to 

 the order Convolvulacece after him, accompanied with the remark, " In memoriam Joannis 

 Wilson auetoris operis haud spernandi" A compliment not to be despised, coming from 

 such high authority. The first volume of Wilson's Synopsis was printed in 1744, by John 

 Gooding, on the Side, Newcastle upon Tyne, but the author does not appear to have re- 

 ceived sufficient encouragement to induce him to publish the second volume. It was to 

 have contained the Fungi, Mosses, Grasses, and Trees, which he says were omitted, " to 

 avoid raising the price of the first volume too high by enlarging the bulk of it too much." 

 From Dr. Pultney, we learn, " That in the year 1762, a person here, into whose hands 

 the MS. had passed, meditated the publication of it with a new edition of the first volume, 

 which was out of print, and much called for, but the design never took effect." Wilson 

 appears to have paid frequent visits to this place, and delivered lectures to a Botanic class, 

 but with what success I know not. To the English Flora, he added Valeriana rubra, on 

 Ely Minster, and on walls in many other places, on the authority of Mr. Martin, and 

 Allium Schamoprasum, in a place called Chivey-syke, in Cartmell Fell, in Lancashire, about 

 six miles from Kendal. Botanists, since his time, have disputed the right of these plants 

 to be considered truly indigenous, not being mentioned by Ray." The former is abundant 

 on Limestone rocks and walls in the north of France, and the latter is certainly wild on Ba- 

 saltic rocks at Wall-town Crags, and Copping Crags by the Wansbeck, near Kirkwhelping- 

 ton, Northumberland. In an interleaved copy of the Synopsis, once the property of the 

 late Mr. Robert Harrison, is the following notice of Wilson's death. " Newcastle 

 Journal, July the 27th, 1751. — We hear from Kendal, in Westmorland, that last week, 



