Specimens of British Wild Flowers. 311 



they were not familiar objects. But those plants which 

 have to be looked for in the quiet recesses of the woods, or 

 which modestly hide themselves by the brooksides, I knew 

 nothing about practically. Great Britain was, therefore, to 

 me an unexplored territory so far as its botany was con- 

 cerned. Nine out of every ten species were new to me. 

 You can, therefore, see what splendid field practice I had in 

 gathering and determining this collection; as you can con- 

 ceive, the elevation of spirits I felt when first I set my eyes 

 on flower after flower of which I had often read, and which 

 have entered so largely into the poetry and song of the 

 mother country. 



Landing at Liverpool on July 4th, that afternoon our 

 company proceeded to Chester, and in walking round the 

 walls of that venerable episcopal city I first broke ground, 

 and succeeded in capturing a number of specimens: Epilo- 

 bium parviflorum and Sagina procumbens, growing in large 

 numbers out of the old wall; Eubus fruticosus, Heracleum 

 sphondylium, Ranunculus acris, Urtica urens and Bellis peren- 

 nis, that modest crimson-tipped flower which is the glory of 

 every grass plot in Britain from March to November, and 

 well earns its title perenne by lasting right through the 

 year in well-sheltered nooks — these being among the rest. 

 During the fortnight of our stay in London I succeeded in 

 finding a number of plants in the neighbourhood of Crouch 

 Hill; Salvia pratensis, Tragopogon pratensis, Stellaria media, 

 Erysimum cheirantholdes and Myosorus minimus among them. 

 I gathered a few plants in the park at Richmond, on the 

 banks of the river at Hampton and Kew — the alluvial basin 

 of the Thames, formed in the course of ages, being rich in 

 vegetable productions. But the first really important addi- 

 tion made to my growing stock of British wild flowers was 

 obtained in that part of Epping Forest which is nearest the 

 metropolis, where L spent an afternoon. The heavy London 

 clay soil yielded a large crop of Cruciferce, Ilanunculacco' and 

 Oaryophyllaceos in particular. Epping Forest is credited 

 with twenty of these specimens. 



