PEENS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 143 



said to feed upon the plant. It is also most eagerly 

 devoured by cattle when placed within their reach, and 

 is believed to be very nutritious food for them. 



2. PlLTJLARIA (Pillwort). 



1. P.fflohuUfera (Creeping Pillwort or Pepper Grass). 

 — Leaves thread-like ; stem creeping ; capsules sHghtly 

 stalked, roundish, and hairy. This plant winds along 

 the grass of wet meadows, or in the mud at the margins 

 of lakes or pools, making little show on the moist lands 

 when inundated with the winter's rains, but lying 

 during summer more or less exposed to view. It is, 

 however, easily overlooked, and was long unnoticed by 

 several of our most eminent botanists, though it grew in 

 abundance in the neighbourhoods in which they resided. 

 The Rev. W. T. Bree found it at Coleshill Pool, in War- 

 wickshire, in so great plenty^ that he says he has seen it 

 covering the shore to a great extent; yet Mr. Purton 

 remarked, some years since, " This must be the rarest of 

 our indigenous plants, as it is not mentioned in the 

 Cambridge, Oxford, or Bedford Floras ; nor is it noticed 

 as a Warwickshire plant in that accurate and laborious 

 work, Dr. Withering's ' Arrangement.' " It is now known 

 to be not uncommon. It grows on the marshes near 

 Penzance in Cornwall ; about Polwhele, Devonshire ; at 

 Maiden Down in Somersetshire ; near Warminster in 

 Wiltshire ; on Esher Common ; at Roehampton, Surrey, 

 and a large number of weU-known localities; being 

 distributed here and there over most parts of the king- 

 dom. It is also familiar to botanists throughout the 



