Woodruffe- Peacock : The Rock-Soil Method. 43 



is a sub-species, Ballota alba Linn., most certainly introduced at some time.' 

 I have no fault to find with this note, which had slipped me, but the 

 nomenclature that underlies it is Linnean and not twentieth century. 

 The flore alho forms of Ballota are no more ' off type ' than the white 

 Viola odorata L. , which is commoner in Cadney than the usual type colour, 

 yet is otherwise just the same. A return to such a system of nomen- 

 clature ' spoils ' our chance of discovering the cause of these colour changes 

 in plants. For instance, I have only once found the white-flowered form 

 of Cnicus lanceolahis Willd., in my life. It was in an old pasture where 

 C. arvensis Hoffm., and C. palustris Willd. were both found flore albo, 

 in the same limited area too. There is a specimen in the county Her- 

 barium at Lincoln of Ononis spinosa Linn., which was of the most lovely 

 deep blue, sent in by the Rev. W. H. Daubney, while it was still quite 

 fresh and brilliant in colour. It was the only plant growing in a large 

 area of the type colour. Surely after the evidence of any ordinary plant 

 collector's experience, or the production of the Shirley poppy, no one 

 wants evidence that colour forms arise suddenly and continue indefinitely. 



Vincent Bacon, F.R.S., Surgeon and Apothecary of Grantham, on 

 October ist, 1726, recorded in Martyn's Botanical Society of London, 

 Ononis spinosa flore albo by the roadside from Ropsley to Boothby. It 

 is found there to-day.* Patrick Blair, M.D., recorded Epilobium hir~ 

 sutum flore albo for Bolingbroke in 1723 ; it is also there to-day f 

 I have, however, direct proof of the ' spontaneity ' of colour change 

 in Ballota nigra under my own eyes. In 1906 a clump which had 

 till then been typical in colour became white, and has remained so till now. 

 Since I went to press Miss S. C. Stow has sent me a record which looks 

 uncommonly like another case — ' Ballota nigra flore albo, one specimen, 

 wall bank, Ropsley village, on Lincolnshire Limestone.' There can be no 

 doubt, as Canon Fowler suggests, that variegated leafage, such as is found 

 in Ballota, arises in part from ' irregular nutrition, too soon wet and dry 

 again.' White flowered or unusual colour forms, I believe, arise from a 

 similar but not like cause. 



Canon Fowler also suggests that plants, like Ballota, veritable ' children 

 of the sun,' with an unusually long flowering range, may be ' triple brooded 

 like some insects.' I have tried to think of everything in making notes, 

 but have never thought of that point before, so cannot say for certain. 

 I will keep some clumps under special observation next summer, to find 

 out whether this is so. If this species is fertilised only by bees, its later 

 flowers must be barren, which is not my experience. I regret to say I 

 have no insect notes on Ballota. No doubt the Canon is right in suggesting 

 that Ballota ' loves shelter from wind, and this is the reason it is a bushy 

 ground or hedgeside species in our area.' Its exact position as a local- 

 areal or extra-areal species can only be finally settled when its position in 

 other counties has been as fully worked out as with us in Lincolnshire. 



In giving illustrations of ' followers of man ' in my last paper, I was 

 only referring to Lincolnshire. Parietaria, for instance, I have proof is 

 ' wind sown,' and ' water carried ' here, but only very locally. I have 

 plenty of proof it is purposely ' carried by man.' The following extract 

 from ' Between Trent and Ancholme ' J is a fair case in point : ' The 

 original Pellitory and wild Wall-flowers, upon the walls and everywhere, 

 were brought as tiny seedlings from Thornton College ruins, and were asso- 

 ciated at the time with Sir Walter's ' Edie Ochiltree, in the ruins of St. 

 Ruth. ' Thae smell sweetest by night-time, thae flowers, and they're maist 

 aye seen about ruined buildings . . . I'm thinking they'll be like mony 

 folk's guid gifts, that often seem maist gracious in adversity.' Parietaria. 



* 'Naturalist,' 1898, p. 178. 



t ' Naturalist,' 1894, p. 338, and 1897, p. 140. 



X No author's name. Messrs. Jackson & Sons, Brigg, 1908, p. 35. 



1909 February i. 



