60 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



NOTES FROM CORNWALL. 



By W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S. 



The records of the colonization of Cotoneaster wicrophylla Wall, 

 in various localities (see Journ. Bot. 1905, 244, 274) reminded me 

 that in 1904 I found it at Fowey, growing over the rocks in the 

 excavated road between Fowey and Menatilly, and near the former 

 place. It was in fruit, and I brought away only a small specimen 

 to verify the species. 



Veronica angusti folia A. Rich., a native of New Zealand, I also 

 found established on one of the abutments of the quaint old bridge 

 of Lostwithiel. It brought to mind the fact that some six hundred 

 species of aliens, largely British, have spread over New Zealand 

 against this one that I lighted on in Cornwall. I do not mean by 

 this that no other New Zealand plant has been found wild in this 

 country ; indeed, I remember having seen Phorminm tenax outside 

 of cultivation somewhere in West Cornwall. 



I do not know whether anybody has examined the wild cabbage 

 — I use the term generically here — that grows on the cliffs below 

 the road leading from Fowey to Readymoney, and reported upon it. 

 I had long been familiar with the appearance of the cabbage on 

 Dover and Walmer cliffs, though I had not critically examined it 

 but it looks like a true cabbage as distinguished from a kale. The 

 Fowey plant struck me as being quite different, and more like a 

 kale, but I could not get specimens from the old plants, as they 

 were on, to me, inaccessible parts of the cliff. I had this cabbage 

 under observation for a month in 1904, and in 1905 I lauded at 

 Fowey for a few hours, partly to look at it again. As near as 

 I could judge, looking down upon the plants, the largest were six 

 to eight feet high, with stems six to eight inches thick near the 

 base, much branched above, and bearing a heavy crop of pods. The 

 leaves were long, curled, and pinnatifid, not round as in the Dover 

 cabbage, and the flowers smaller. With regard to the size of the 



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flower, there is a specimen in H. C. Watson's herbarium at Kew 

 from the cliffs west of Walmer, communicated by Miss Harvey, 

 having petals an inch and a quarter long and half an inch wide ; 

 but this is doubtless an unusually luxuriant specimen. . 



The Fowey cabbage is not only perennial, but shrubby, I should 

 say, the same stems flowering year after year. I think I am right 

 in stating that the plants I saw in flower and fruit in 1905 were 

 the same that I saw in flower in 1904. However, some local 

 botanist may be able to give more exact information on this point, 

 which is one of considerable interest. My impression is that soffit 

 of the plants of the Fowey cabbage may be five or ten years old, or 

 they may be even older. 



Near Bodinnick, on the steep left bank of the Fowey, there is 

 very luxuriant vegetation, due no doubt to the superficial springs 

 which keep the banks and flats more or less saturated. Taking the 

 road to the left of the landing-place from the ferry, there are some 



