FOXTON-FIRBY : NOTES 



ON FIELD BOTANY. 



149 



H. ericetorum, var. minor, Hotwell Eocks. 



H. rotundata. Stoke Wood. 



H. rotundata, var. alha, once on Durd- 



ham Down. 

 II. rupestris. Garden wall of Eldon Villa. 

 H. pulchella. Under stones on Durdham 



Down. 



H. lapidda. Clifton Eocks and Stoke 

 "Wood. 



BuUmus ohscurus. Hotwell Eocks. 

 Pupa secede, Hotwell Rocks. 



P. unfibilicata. Everywhere. 

 P, marignata. Under stones on Durdham 

 Down. 



Clausilia nigricans. Everywhere. 

 G. lubrica. Durdham Down. 

 C. minimum. Moss, Leigh "Woods. 

 C. elegans. Clifton Eocks and Stoke 

 Wood. 



Eliza C. Jellie, Eldon Villa, Eedland, 

 Bristol, Nov. 14, 1866. 



A FASCICLE OF NOTES ON FIELD BOTANY. 

 By Edwin Foxton Firby. 



It is certainly a great relaxation, when we have been hard at work all 

 the morning and have been puzzled and re-puzzled with various intricate 

 problems, to escape into the woods and fields, from books to the one grand 

 ever-open volume of Nature, with its divinely mystic hieroglyphics inviting 

 our decipherment ; to inhale the sweet fresh air ; scent the dehcate flowers, 

 the delicious redolence of wliich is borne to us on the ambient wings of 

 Zephyrus, and to listen to the merry songs of our feathered Httle friends. 

 Here by the side of this woodland stream, with its translucent waters and 

 bed of bright yellow sands gleaming like gold in tl.ie rays of the meridianal 

 sun, we can almost fancy ourselves in some poetical Yale of Temj^e. On the 

 lichen-covered bank under some leafy covert we can enjoy that dreamy state 

 of languor so indescribably soothing to the chafed and restless mind — the 

 dolce far niente of the Italians, the Latakian kieff of the Turks. As, how- 

 ever, we have other objects in prospective than sitting down on a moss- 

 covered bank and fancying ourselves in Arcadia, be it ever so inviting, we 

 must hasten and see what the Fates have in store for us. To have some 

 purpose, tangible and real, in view, considerably enhances the interest of our 

 trip, no matter what the purpose may be. Perhaps it may be our intention 

 to procure certain wild roots to add to our garden stock — ferns and mosses to 

 adorn the rockery, or even fossils or wild flowers to exhibit as trophies of 

 pedestrianism. It may be that we intend searching for beetles, moths, 



