WOODRUFI-E-PEACOCK : CATALOGUE OF LINCOLNSHIRE PLANTS. 249 



Lees records it again, in the Outline Flora, on the authority of 

 Dr. Martin Lister and Mr. J. B. Davy. Mr. Davy tells me bis 

 specimen was certainly at t His. I read Dr. M. Lister's remarks, 



see Journey to Paris in the year 1698, 3rd ed. ? p. 227, in a 

 different way to my friend Mr. Lees. But I think the matter 

 is fully set at rest by J. Gerarde's Herbal, 1597, p. 948: — 

 1 Asparagus sativus. Garden Sperage. We have in our marrish 

 and lovve lands neere unto the sea, a Sperage of this kinde, 

 which differeth little from that of the garden, and yet in kinde 

 there is no difference at all, but only in manuring : by which all 

 things, or most things, are made more beautifull and larger. 

 This may be called Asparagus palustris, Marisk Sperage. It 

 groweth in the meadows near Moulton in Lincolnshire, and at 

 North Moulton, in Holland, a part of Lincolnshire.' This, the 

 first record for this county, as I read, says in modern language 

 the variety is altilis, though not so large, well grown, or tasty, 

 as the garden type. 



Polygonatum multiflorum All.f Planted alien. Div. 7. 



Benniworth House Plantation, 1856 ; Messrs. Bogg. 



Maianthemum convallaria Weber. t Native, I believe. Div. 10. 



George Gosling, an old labourer on the estate, has known it in its 

 present locality for over forty years, he told me on the spot. 

 Messrs. F. A. Lees, J. S. Sneath, L. Creswell, B. Crow, and I, thanks 

 to the kindness and hospitality of Mr. H. M. Hawley, the squire, 

 were able to examine the ground it grows on most carefully. 

 In its native Yorkshire station, due north, it grows on the 

 detritus of oolitic Limestone. In Lincolnshire it flourishes on 

 the ancient gravel of the old river Trent, which unquestionably 

 flowed along the course of the present river Witham, but with 

 a much greater body of water and force, carrying the denudin— 

 of the cliff hills and spreading them out over its course. There 

 were no aliens to be found near the Maianthemum. On the 

 other hand it was growing with the characteristic Rulnis subereclus 

 Anders, and Convallaria majalis L. in one patch sixty by forty 

 yards, and in another small one about three yards square, on 

 the other side of a gamekeepers footpath. The locality is not 

 near a house, and the wood is perfectly free from aliens and has 

 the characteristic flora of sandy limestone woods of the rest of 

 the county, or where it stands on boulder clay the especial flora 

 of that stratum, as Mr. F, A. Lees and I most carefully noted. 

 This property was once part of the estate of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 our great Lincolnshire botanist. He made experiments with 

 foreign grasses, see W. T. Aiton's Ilort. Keuwisis* 18 10, vol. i, 



