RARE PLANTS IN BRITAIN. 
§5 
breakwater from the sea, are to be found the Covvigiola littoralis and 
Chenopodium botvyodes, and along the coast or on the moor Allium sibi- 
ricum, Hevniaria glabra, va., subciliata, Exacum filiforme and the three 
very rare clovers, Trifolium Bocconi, T. Molinerii, and T. stridum. 
These are mere samples of Cornish rarities ; and the question 
naturally arises, How came they there ? 
How comes the little Alpine stranger, common enough in 
Switzerland, to be found at Pennard Castle in the Gower 
peninsula, and on the Worm’s Head, and nowhere else in 
Britain ? I saw it growing at the former station not many years 
ago. There is now very little of it on the walls of the grim 
old castle ruins ; but on the rocks in the neighbourhood there 
are numerous plants of all ages. 
How comes the Gladiolus illyricus to have established itseli 
in several spots in the New Forest, and nowhere else (for the 
Isle of Wight specimen was a solitary waif)? I had the plea- 
sure not long ago of seeing from 50 to 100 spikes of it all 
bursting into bloom in one grassy and ferny spot not far from 
Brockenhurst. 
How comes the Dianthus ccesius to have taken possession of 
that romantic Cheddar gorge, and of that spot only, of which 
it bids fair to be dispossessed by the sacrilegious hands and 
sordid greed of the harpies that infest the entrance to the 
ravine with trays of it on their heads, clamouring to sell to the 
visitor “ the plant peculiar to the place.” When I was last 
there some six or seven years ago I was dismayed to find that 
there was not a mature plant anywhere within reach. Happily, 
several mature plants are rooted high up in inaccessible ledges 
of rock, and these throw down their seed ; so there is no imme- 
diate. fear of its extirpation in our one locality for this beautiful 
little pink. 
Why did the Menziesia (Phyllodoce) cccvulea — common, I believe, 
in Norway — settle itself only on that bleak hillside, the Sow of 
Athol, in Drummochter Pass, above almost the summit level of 
the daring Highland Railway ? and, having established itself 
there, why did it send no colonies to other hillsides in that 
bleak and barren neighbourhood? It used to grow and flourish 
here in abundance till some ruthless and selfish dealer became 
'aware of the existence of the plant, and of its rarity, and swept 
it almost all away — not quite all, for I rejoice to know that a 
remnant still survives. 1 searched the hillside, as I supposed, 
almost foot by foot, for two afternoons one summer, and failed 
to find it ; but the station-master at Dalnaspidal, who had 
assured me it still existed, and had given me what ought to 
have been clear directions, consoled me for my disappointment 
by subsequently sending me two small dried sprigs by way of 
evidence of its existence. 
Or to pass to a very different scene and clime, how and 
whence comes the little Trichonema Bulbocodium, which grows in 
some abundance in the Channel Islands, to have selected as its 
