110 



THE NATURALIST. 



am induced to suppose that we have at the most only two instead of three 

 forms of alpestre — the one taller and glaucous at Matlock, &c., which might 

 appropriately he called glaucescens, instead of vixens as hitherto applied to it. 

 The other of generally lower growth with green fohage — the Malham, &c., 

 plant, which might be called virens, instead of occitanicum. In conclusion I 

 may state, that it would be very satisfactory to me to be informed of the 

 opinions of other botanists on this subject. 



Manchester, July, 1865. 



LONDON BOTANY, PAST AND PEESENT. 



By James Britten. 



As the attention of the readers of the Naturalist has been for some 

 short time past directed to the various charms presented to their notice in 

 the Birds of Berkshire, the Geology of Gloucestershire, the Botany of Bucks, 

 and the like, I may perhaps be allowed a short space in which to point out 

 to the London Botanist the plants which he may obtain within an easy dis- 

 tance of his city home. The botany of the city itself is, I fear, very scanty, 

 — confined to the hardy Groundsel or Shepherd's Purse, which brave the 

 smoke of the town, with, perhaps occasionally, Linaria Cymhalaria, decking 

 a wall in one of those quiet bye streets which one sometimes comes across 

 even in the very heart of London itself. The Arrow-head, which until 

 recently held its ground in the river in the front of the Temple gardens, has ' 

 at length fallen a victim to the increased traffic of the silent highway." 

 But in the subuxbs — at least in those removed by some short distance from 

 the town itself — there is still much that may be done, as there is much that 

 has passed away. No longer can we, with Gerarde, find the " Small Autumn 

 Jacinth " [Scilla autumnalis) upon a " banke by the Thames side between 

 Chelsey and London the " Yellow Willow-herbe" (Lysimachia vulgaris) 

 which grew " along the medows as you go from London to Battersey neere 

 London," is, like those meadows, a thing of the past ; " Hooded Loosestrife" 

 {Scutellaria galericulata) has long since disappeared from the "Waters sides in 

 Saint James his Parke" ; and Johnson when editing Gerarde's works, had even 

 then to lament that " Wall Penniwort" Cotyledon umbilicus " is not now to 

 be found" in its ancient place, " upon Westminster Abbey, over the doore 



