BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
23 
market, on account of the great profusion of certain herbs or 
simples which abound there ; hence arose the old saying, 
“ Go to Battersea to be cut for the simples ” 
This locality extends for about a mile and a half in length, 
from Nine Elms to Battersea village, and varying from half a 
mile to a mile in breadth, extending from the river Thames 
towards the Wandsworth Road ; on account of its occupying 
so great an extent, it necessarily offers some slight variation, 
such as cultivated fields, meadows, pastures, &c. Being for 
the most part situated below the level of high water mark, 
the meadows and pastures are more or less watered, although 
the tide is kept out by means of a high embankment on the 
border of the river. Interspersed between the meadows and 
pastures, are small ditches, or streamlets, which, from their 
being often overflowed by the draining from the fields, keep 
the ground more or less supplied with moisture. It is more 
particularly in these ditches and streamlets that the Bota- 
nist, Entomologist, and' Conchologist, delight to seek the 
productions of nature ; which being mostly formed of stag- 
nant water, abound with interesting specimens to the natu- 
ralist; moreover, since it has been ascertained that particular 
tribes feed, and are found attached to particular plants, or 
tribes of plants, it follows that from this locality which offers 
more than one-half of the natural orders, rather less than one- 
half of the genera, and more than one-fourth of the species, 
of flowering plants, indigenous to Britain, many insects will 
likewise be found. 
The substratum is a stiff clay, except in those places where 
for cultivation, chalk, and other soils, have been introduced, 
in order to render the land fit for the produce of such crops 
as the farmer may consider necessary. 
Battersea Fields may be conveniently divided into six dis- 
tinct and nearly equal parts ; the first division of w hich, is 
the meadow r s and pastures ; the second, the cultivated fields ; 
the third, the osier grounds ; the fourth, Battersea Common ; 
the fifth, the ponds and ditches, &c. ; and lastly, the market 
gardens, together with a portion of Wandsworth Common, in 
the parish of Battersea. 
(Here followed a brief notice of each particular district, 
with a list of some of the rarer species found in them.) 
What wall become at length of this rich locality ? of this 
“ The wild Botanic garden of London,” as it may be termed ; 
the place w here most of our ancestors and ourselves have so 
