337 



NORTH OF ENGLAND PLANTS 

 IN THE BICHENO HERBARIUM AT SWANSEA. 



Rev. H. J. RIDDELSDELL, M.A., 



St. Michael's College, Aberdare, South Wales. 



The Royal Institution of South Wales at Swansea is in posses- 

 sion of a collection of dried plants presented to it in 1839 by 

 J. E. Bicheno, shortly before he left for Tasmania. The collection 

 is unfortunately in bad condition owing- to the attacks of damp 

 and insects ; and at the outset its usefulness was much lowered 

 by the carelessness of Bicheno himself. It is by no means an 

 infrequent thing* to find specimens unnamed ; very frequently, 

 indeed, they are without date, and often either unlocalised or 

 credited with too g-eneral a locality to be of much use. Further, 

 there is some admixture of a second collection, presented in 1848 

 by • Mr. Motley, now of Labuan,' to the same society. But 

 Bicheno's specimens are on the whole very correctly named. 

 There are few errors which I (with, however, a very limited know- 

 ledge) was able to trace. A specimen of Chenopodium hybridum 

 from Newbury is labelled C. rubrum, with pencil note ' perhaps 

 botryodes, not rubrum" Scleranthus annuus var. biennis is put 

 down to S. perennis : Vaccinium Oxycoccos is called V. Vitis-idcea. 



All parts of the British Islands are laid under contribution : 

 and there are in some genera (e.g. Galium) good series of 

 foreign plants. And, moreover, contributions have been made 

 by various well-known botanists. The initials T. F. Fforster]., 

 J. W[oods]., W. J. Hfooker]., and others are of frequent 

 occurrence. 



The ' Naturalist' will demand some account of the North of 

 England plants which Bicheno possessed. ' Mr. Motley, now 

 of Labuan,' must yield place to his better known predecessor, 

 though there is a great deal of interest to be found for North of 

 England botanists in his collection also. 



Of new records for Yorkshire I can only trace one, Vaccinium 

 uliginosum, for which no precise locality is given. 



Of new localities in West Yorkshire (if they are such) 

 Meum athamanticum, near Halifax ; Mentha rotundifoUa t Ripon ; 

 and Polygonum viviparum, Ingleton. It is not clear thai these 

 are not vaguer accounts of what is given more precisely m 

 Mr. Arnold Lees' flora. 



1902 November 4. 



