3i8 



Lrt's : Britisli and Alien PI(i>i/-Lis/s. 



catoJ Inquiry Ofticos arc as iu\'ossary as any oUum" sort. This 

 is of itself no moan merit . and it sliews (on ex'ery i>age), that 

 personality and enthnsiasni, eonpl'nl with eajxihility in the 

 maker, which is a subtle compliment to the would-be mastcrer 

 of its C(^ntents. It is, of course, the expression of individual 

 opinion largely ; but does that not all the more interest the 

 Conner of itself ? 



For the rest it includes the names (italicised) of many more 

 Strangers, Casuals and Aliens of all classes, than even Dunn ; 

 and it further indicates the countries or hemispheres which 

 are their headquarters. The abbreviations referring to these 

 are all understandable : ' An\\)\\.' = arnphicns, both sides of the 

 globe [Oxahs, Sida, etc.]; ' Calpe ' — Gibraltar; ' Mer.'=^ 

 meridional, Southern ; for example. Cilicia (sub Bromus, 

 2810) is the old IMediterranean district of Asia Minor ; and so 

 on. We see how Cosmopolitan British Trade has got to be, 

 through its adventitious or vicarious imports of sperm in dozens 

 of wa3's. The * Colonists ' To-Be of our fields and shores are 

 coming in relays (failures mostly yet as far as establishing them- 

 selves is concerned, while conditions are what they are), a few 

 only, like Matricaria suaveolens (*I362) bidding fair to be what 

 Poppies are in our ' British Flora ' (like the English language 

 assimilating the kernels of many others) ; unmistakably 

 forcing on our minds the historic lesson — that is jtist nor more 

 nor less, how a moity, if not more, of our changing, varying 

 floJ'a was made up ! It is not long — as floral immigration goes — 

 since the Roman Invasion brought Urtica pihdifera to Norwich, 

 and even Yorkshire, or since the Phoenicians bror^ght our 

 dubious Papaver, our early Eastern travellers other things, or 

 the Saxons and Flemings Isatis,3ind that other blue wool-dyeing 

 Dane's-Elder (although it, like Campanula persicifolia and 

 Althoea hirsuta may be really indigens in the south and mid- 

 west). But to have a full list (or nearly full — for something 

 new will be here to-morrow !) of British Aliens is most instruc- 

 tive ; ay, and profitable to dwell upon, when so many of our 

 ancient settlers and ' rarities ' are going or almost gone, and 

 incomers so easily detected. And a careful consideration of 

 the situations our ' Aliens ' fill when at Home, tells us some- 

 thing too ; hinting why so few, very few, ' New British ' species 

 are discovered in our remoter or rocky fastnesses. The Donn 

 type of ' discoveries,' the Iceland poppy, the Silene alpestris 

 lot, can't get here ; and if they were ever integers in the florula 



Naturalist, 



