12G 
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
for the public the beauty spots of England, lived at Clifton in 
his early days, and whilst there described in verse his thoughts 
about the Hermit of St. Vincent's Rock — 
"The full tide taught him calm ; at ebb he heard 
The hurrying streams his indolence rebuke ! 
The cave's cool drip of water was his clock! 
The birds to Matins called, to Vespers led ; 
And as he knelt sweet fragrances were shed 
From those gold censers blowing on the rock ! 
So with imagination for his guide 
The hermit lived, and loved his God and died."* 
' ' The gold censers blowing on the rock " is a poetic reference- 
to the yellow wallflowers which are so abundant on the rocks in 
Spring-time. 
These same hermits left their mark on the rocks by the pottage 
herbs they grew for food, which have survived down to our own 
days. 
Mention has been made of the first real book on Gardening 
in England published about 1440, and out of the 100 plants 
named as worthy of growth there are to be found no less than 
thirty -five still flourishing on St. Vincent's Rocks, many of them, 
and perhaps all, descendants of the hermits' garden. This 
number of thirty-five plants is given on the authority of the 
'* Flora of Bristol," where they can be found set out in their 
botanical order. 
These Rocks are of limestone with a very thin layer of soil 
on top, and around Bristol there are many similar formations, 
of which may be instanced the downland above the Cheddar 
Gorge, and the upper slopes of the Cadbury ridge towards 
Clevedon. On these spots there is not to be found anything like 
the wealth of different kinds of plants such as St. Vincent's Rocks 
afford. Should not the conclusion be drawn that our particular 
stretch of downland owes its pre-eminence for the variety of wild 
flowers to the permanency with which they have survived from 
the hermits' cultivation in the past ? 
A few w r ords about these plants may be of interest. Amongst 
them are those known to be some of the culinary herbs used in 
the making of salads and of sauces in monastic times. The chief 
of these found on the Rocks is the large Umbelliferous plant 
named by us " Alexanders," and distinguished botanically as 
" the pot-herb Alexanders." Of late years its growth has in- 
creased in such quantities as to make it a conspicuous sight in 
May when its yellowish-green flower-heads rise above the bright 
green of its foliage. Fortunately it dies down early in the 
summer, and in this way makes room for the more lowly flowers 
that follow in succession. Alexanders was eaten, both boiled 
* Bristol Sonnets, 1877, " Pleasures of Imagination, or The Jackdaws 
above Ghyston Cave." 
