122 
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
due to the sites being natural ground untouched for centuries by 
cultivation, or, on the contrary, to the remains of former 
husbandry in times long ago. In other words, in similar spots of 
whatever nature, we expect to find, if not the same species of 
plants, then' those that are closely allied. 
It is a big subject to examine, but a peep into one little corner 
of it may be, perhaps, of interest and worthy of thought. 
Certain observations in one's own experience on visits to 
ancient monasteries, and the dwelling places of hermits seem to 
show that similar plants are often met with in such limited areas 
in so marked a manner, as to lead to further comparisons, and 
these in their turn to the feeling that there is in hardy species a 
permanency of growth around one spot that is remarkable. It 
is to be remembered that in considering these monastic domains 
we are dealing with the homes of human beings who planted for 
a purpose, and therefore cultivated plants to suit their needs, and 
without consideration whether the positions were suitable or not 
for the growth of kinds they wanted, and again, that wanton 
destruction and neglect have since then repeatedly passed over 
those tracks of land. Yet with both these hostile factors at work, 
the same kinds of plants have survived such treatment in those 
places, and still to a limited extent hold their own year after 
year during the long period of over 280 years, since the abolition 
of the religious houses in England. In observing such plants we 
may well feel that in this century we must be looking at the 
direct descendants of the very herbs that were grown with loving 
care by the monks of long ago, and can realize that there is a 
permanency about Nature's work, which may be at times over- 
looked. There is no need to go far afield for examples to illustrate 
this aspect, although its truth becomes more evident when a 
number of such habitats is compared. 
Amidst the vales of Yorkshire are the ruins of several old 
Abbeys, founded by monks who believed that to make " the 
desert rejoice and blossom as the rose " was one of the great 
callings of man on earth, and who accordingly chose what were 
then deserted wilds for the sites of their habitations, and there to 
this day, in spite of so much human work about them from the 
time they were abandoned, are to be seen patches of the Stinking 
and Green Hellebores, the Deadly Nightshade, Aristolochia, 
Goutweed, and the White Horehound, all of them remnants of 
the infirmary garden attached to these monastic buildings. The 
two Hellebores used to be employed in medicine for internal 
diseases. They are amongst the earliest of flowers to come into 
blossom in the spring, and in places where they are met with 
about here are looked upon as products of cultivation by the 
housewife of long ago. The Deadly Nightshade seems to have 
been grown by the monks for the purpose of quieting sufferers in 
the delirium of fever, but of late years only a few plants of this 
species are to be found in any one spot, the others having been 
