tEESIDENT's ADDRESS. 169 



all sufficiently uniform, constant, and self-evident, to mark it 

 clearly. 



I suppose it to be the plant commonly indicated under the 

 designation of TJlex nana. 



In North Wales it often forms coverts by itself alone. In 

 Pembrokeshire it commingles with the common or greater TJlex 

 Europcca. In Ireland again it generally commingles. 



It occurs in the neighbourhood of Warwick, and is frequent 

 in Cumberland, though rather kept down by diminished tempera- 

 ture. 



Some twelve years ago, finding pretty, compact young plants 

 of this whin, adorned with flowers, in the neighbourhood of 

 Windermere, in October, I conveyed some of them to Northum- 

 berland, which I planted at Hedgeley, where no such whin is 

 found, though TJlex Europcca abounds. The plants grew, but 

 only tardily, and showing but very little flower, though open to 

 the sun on a fine dry knoll, where the larger native whin was 

 luxuriating in detached bushes. Three good strong tufts of this 

 whin from Windermere, each big enough to hide a hare, were 

 established, when, to my utter surprise, I observed two of these, 

 after a languid growth for six or seven years in their original 

 aspect, rapidly transmuting themselves, twig after twig, but 

 still always per saltum, into our common northern whin, TJlex 

 Europcca. The third plant has been nearly if not quite destroyed 

 by frost two or three years ago. I should state that the three 

 tufts, after being kept clear of grass for two or three years, and 

 protected from hares and rabbits, had subsequently been left to 

 take care of themselves, and to contend with the grasses, only 

 that I occasionally tended them myself, and tore away any growth 

 that threatened to overpower them . 



The fact that these two plants have really transmuted them- 

 selves in twelve years from the TJlex nana of Bowness on Win- 

 dermere into the TJlex Europcca of Northumberland, through the 

 influence of a colder and harsher climate, conveys a very inter- 

 esting lesson to my mind. It teaches me that TJlex nana (the 

 lesser, autumn-flowering whin) is only a subsidiary geographical 

 form of TJlex Europcca. It is distinct enough and tangible 



