Asplenium. 
TOI 
later, when he has had time to observe rather more closely, he is equally impressed with the 
absence of others which he had come to look upon as almost integral paits of his botanical 
surroundings. For instance, if a botanist from the neighbourhood of London goes to 
Manchester, he will miss the common Mallow (Matvei sylvestns ) which he has been accus- 
tomed to see in every waste corner and by every roadside ; in the neighbourhood of 
Manchester this is so uncommon that even where met with there is some suspicion that it 
has been introduced. The pretty little Bindweed, again, ( Convolvulus awensis) which he has 
found by the side of every path and in every corn-field, is absent ; 
and although Poppies are sometimes seen, they are not of the brilliant 
crimson species (Papctver R/iccas ) which dyes our southern corn-fields with 
blood. Yet there are other points connected with distribution which are 
even more strange. For instance, it is difficult to account for the fact that 
a curious leafless orchid ( Epipogum aphyllmn), of somewhat wide distri- 
bution on the Continent of Europe, has been once, and once only (in 1854), 
found in England, it having been discovered in a copse in Herefordshire in 
that year — the plant being one very unlikely to have 
been introduced in any accidental manner. Equally 
strange is the history of a species of Centaury 
(. Erythrcea latifolia), which, until lately, was found 
upon the Lancashire sand-hills, and nowhere else in 
the world, and which has not now occurred in its 
only known locality for some years, its last record 
* dating 1865 ; so that we have apparently 
here an instance of a plant dying out in 
very recent times. 
The history of Asplenium fontanmn , 
to which it is high time we returned, is 
not difficult to trace, although it is far 
from easy to come to any definite con- 
clusion as to its nativity as a British 
plant. It was first added to our lists 
in 1762, by William Hudson, who in- 
cludes it in his “ Flora Anglica” of that 
date, and says, “ Habitat in fissuris rupium et muris antiquis. Supra Hammersham church, 
D. Bradney ; in locis saxosis supra Wybourn in Westmorlandia.” With regard to the 
Amersham Church locality (in Buckinghamshire), it is certain that the true plant was found 
there ; and it is equally certain that it does not occur there now, nor has it done so for 
very many years. Bolton figures the plant (his plate being dated 1785), and after quoting 
the localities just given says, “The specimen here figured and described was sent to my 
brother, A.D. 1775, by a gentleman who gathered it in Buckinghamshire.” This was probably 
from Amersham Church, although it is not absolutely specified. In the British Museum 
herbarium there are two specimens, said to have been collected by Lightfoot, a botanist of 
the last century, to which is attached a ticket, upon which, after citing the old synonyms 
and the above-named Westmoreland locality, is written: “This was gathered on Ammersham 
Church, Bucks.” This is not dated ; but Sir James Edward Smith,* writing in 1828, 
ASPLENIUM FoNTAN 
* “English Flora,” iv. 314. 
